Nairobi, April 22 -- Tanzania's beleaguered National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) is on the verge of bankruptcy, blamed on the government's failure to pay a huge debt and rising fraud in card use, according to the latest audit on public sector expenditure.

The Controller and Auditor General's report for the 2022/2023 financial year, which was made public this week, says that NHIF made a loss of Tsh156.77 billion ($60.76 million) during the year.

Although this is a 24 percent drop from the Tsh205.95 billion ($79.82 million) loss reported in 2021/2022, it is still the highest among public entities.

The Fund's financial situation was compounded by accumulated debts of Tsh208 billion ($80 million) owed by the government itself and a Tsh137...