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The Deputy Director, Corporate Communications of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Mr. Eric Ametor Quamyne, has described as false and malicious, publications by the Daily Searchlight newspaper that the CEO of the NHIA, Mr. Sylvester Mensah, had spent huge sums of money acquiring luxurious facilities for his personal use, whiles bloating the staff levels of the Authority with NDC apparatchiks. Speaking in reaction to the reports in an interview with PEACEFM News, Mr. Quamyne was emphatic that the publications were a vain attempt by the Searchlight newspaper Editor, Ken Kurankye, to throw mud at the NHIA CEO. The Daily Searchlight newspaper published that the CEO of the NHIA, Sylvester Mensah had rented a three bedroom house at a tune of $72,000.00 for two years. The newspaper also published that the Authority recently underwrote the purchase of ten 4 Wheel Drive vehicles for Senior Management, in addition to buying two top of the range vehicles for Mr. Mensah�s use. But Mr. Ametor Quamyne claims the report is inaccurate and slanted. According to him, since 2004, the NHIA has no official accommodation for its Chief Executive Officer, as such the NHIA Council decided to rent one for its present CEO. �When the NHIS was first introduced in 2004, the first CEO was assigned from the Ministry of Health, and didn�t need an official bungalow since he was being housed by the Ministry. Mr. Ras Boateng, who took over from the previous CEO, was working with SSNIT, and as a consequence stayed in a government bungalow. But Mr. Sylvester Mensah, who was appointed from the private sector, had no official quarters,� he explained. He further explained that even the acquisition of the rental quarters was done without the in-put of the CEO. �The National Health Insurance Council made the decision without his (CEO�s) knowledge regarding the accommodation�Mr. Sylvester Mensah did not and was in no way involved in the search for his residence�He had nothing to do with the acquisition of the house,� he added. Mr. Ametor Quamyne accused the NPP of being the cause of the current accommodation predicament facing the NHIA, alleging that they (NPP)sold-off all state property to themselves. "If our friends, the NPP had left behind gov't bungalows intact, we could have found a place for our leaders. They practically sold off all such bungalows to themselves...so the NHIA cannot sit idle and not search for a suitable and a homely residence for its Chief Executive," he stated. He told Peace FM that from 2007, the Board of Directors of the NHIA had made a proposal to the Public Procurement Board and eventually to Parliament for the acquisition of the $3,000 per month accommodation at the airport residential area. He added that a proposed 4x4 vehicle was also laid before the procurement board for purchase. �A $88,000 price tag was placed on the vehicle by the company selling the vehicle but after negotiations, they arrived at $83,000, that means a reduction in about $5,000�, he told Peace FM. Asked why the Authority would not buy a house permanently for the use by its CEO, Mr. Ametor Quamyne replied that �$72,000 is woefully inadequate in purchasing or constructing a house the CEOs status,� he said He challenged the Editor of the Daily Searchlight to seek the opinion of estate developers to ascertain whether $72,000 (which the NHIA paid as a two year rent advance), could be used to purchase a house for a CEO. �You could compare prices from estate developers. Looking at where most CEOs stayed, $72,000 cannot be used to acquire a house for a CEO,� he added.