However, the level of misinformation making the rounds has reached unprecedented levels and even more worrisome is the deliberate politicising of the situation by some opportunistic politicians hence the need for us to respond.
Kindly, find below some pertinent points to note:
●That the NMA strike action is chiefly rooted on a 6-point agitation, namely;
*Special consideration for doctors, who were employed in 2015 by the previous administration
*Erroneously omitted/uncleared names in the screening Appeal Committee report to be moved to cleared list.
*Rectification of the underpayment of two NMA members
*Promotion of members, who are due
*Reduction or total waving of taxes for doctors
*Implementation of corrected CONMESS salary scale for doctors.
●We need to state unequivocally that any association in Kogi State has the right to agitate, if they perceive they have been treated unfairly; they most follow the laid down processes as enshrined in the Civil Service Rule and various Labour organizations
●The first misconception is that Kogi State has not paid doctors in the state for the past 15 months! It would interest you to know that out of the 163 Doctors currently under the Kogi State payroll only 25 (15%) of them have salary issues due to the screening exercise that was just concluded. It was discovered that some of those uncleared had problems ranging from minor to major Civil Service crimes (including diaspora workers and receipt of double salaries from the State Government).
It is practically impossible for the Government to be arm-twisted towards granting express waver for all (except those in the 11 categories out of 44) that were pardoned by his Excellency the Governor of Kogi State) without properly examining them. Those of the 25, who are free of any misgivings, were about to be cleared before the commencement of the strike action.
● On the issue of revised CONMESS, people need to understand that government processes follow a particular pattern. For instance, there can not be an implementation for expenses not captured in the 2017 budget. As such, the issue can only be approved but wait for implementation in 2018 or a supplementary budget be prepared for that purpose.
● The special consideration for the 2015 employment for doctors only had been accepted by His Excellency, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, as those in areas of special needs. In fact, the first four points of their agitation had been given express approval within the first 24 hours of the onset of the strike by the Executive Governor.
●As a responsible government that knows why the health of her people should not be taken for granted, we had invited NMA to round table discussions within 24 hours of the release of the Screening Appeal Report, in a meeting divided into three sessions. The first was between the Chief of Staff, the Commissioner for Health and the Special Adviser to the Governor on Health, during which NMA were asked to give the minimum of what they required to suspend the strike action.
During the second session, the governor graciously granted approval as stated earlier. This was fully communicated to NMA.
Resolution of issues relating to promotions was taken care of in the third session as Chief Executives of various organizations were directed to implement the promotion exercise earlier conducted.
These agitations took this long to be addressed because most of them were tied to the screening exercise and as such we had appealed to NMA to exercise patience till the outcome of the screening appeal exercise was released. This did not happen till the 1st of May.
●Other issues that require a longer process (such as taxation) has already commenced. We have tried in our best possible way to be reasonable with NMA. The position of the Honourable Commissioner for Health is a very dicey one, being a member of NMA, representing the Government, and ensuring that Healthcare to the good people of Kogi State is uninterrupted.
However, the life of the people of Kogi State is uppermost in our hearts such that we cannot continue to allow politics to be played with such lives. Currently, Kogi State has a lean purse from which all sectors in the State have to pull from and as such no sector can be considered less important than the other.
As for those who wish to cash in on this rift to score cheap political points, we wish to assure you that this is a family affair and we will resolve it without the need for external incursions in no time.
Thank you.
AUDU HARUNA
Hon. Commissioner for Health,
Kogi State
Kindly, find below some pertinent points to note:
●That the NMA strike action is chiefly rooted on a 6-point agitation, namely;
*Special consideration for doctors, who were employed in 2015 by the previous administration
*Erroneously omitted/uncleared names in the screening Appeal Committee report to be moved to cleared list.
*Rectification of the underpayment of two NMA members
*Promotion of members, who are due
*Reduction or total waving of taxes for doctors
*Implementation of corrected CONMESS salary scale for doctors.
●We need to state unequivocally that any association in Kogi State has the right to agitate, if they perceive they have been treated unfairly; they most follow the laid down processes as enshrined in the Civil Service Rule and various Labour organizations
●The first misconception is that Kogi State has not paid doctors in the state for the past 15 months! It would interest you to know that out of the 163 Doctors currently under the Kogi State payroll only 25 (15%) of them have salary issues due to the screening exercise that was just concluded. It was discovered that some of those uncleared had problems ranging from minor to major Civil Service crimes (including diaspora workers and receipt of double salaries from the State Government).
It is practically impossible for the Government to be arm-twisted towards granting express waver for all (except those in the 11 categories out of 44) that were pardoned by his Excellency the Governor of Kogi State) without properly examining them. Those of the 25, who are free of any misgivings, were about to be cleared before the commencement of the strike action.
● On the issue of revised CONMESS, people need to understand that government processes follow a particular pattern. For instance, there can not be an implementation for expenses not captured in the 2017 budget. As such, the issue can only be approved but wait for implementation in 2018 or a supplementary budget be prepared for that purpose.
● The special consideration for the 2015 employment for doctors only had been accepted by His Excellency, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, as those in areas of special needs. In fact, the first four points of their agitation had been given express approval within the first 24 hours of the onset of the strike by the Executive Governor.
●As a responsible government that knows why the health of her people should not be taken for granted, we had invited NMA to round table discussions within 24 hours of the release of the Screening Appeal Report, in a meeting divided into three sessions. The first was between the Chief of Staff, the Commissioner for Health and the Special Adviser to the Governor on Health, during which NMA were asked to give the minimum of what they required to suspend the strike action.
During the second session, the governor graciously granted approval as stated earlier. This was fully communicated to NMA.
Resolution of issues relating to promotions was taken care of in the third session as Chief Executives of various organizations were directed to implement the promotion exercise earlier conducted.
These agitations took this long to be addressed because most of them were tied to the screening exercise and as such we had appealed to NMA to exercise patience till the outcome of the screening appeal exercise was released. This did not happen till the 1st of May.
●Other issues that require a longer process (such as taxation) has already commenced. We have tried in our best possible way to be reasonable with NMA. The position of the Honourable Commissioner for Health is a very dicey one, being a member of NMA, representing the Government, and ensuring that Healthcare to the good people of Kogi State is uninterrupted.
However, the life of the people of Kogi State is uppermost in our hearts such that we cannot continue to allow politics to be played with such lives. Currently, Kogi State has a lean purse from which all sectors in the State have to pull from and as such no sector can be considered less important than the other.
As for those who wish to cash in on this rift to score cheap political points, we wish to assure you that this is a family affair and we will resolve it without the need for external incursions in no time.
Thank you.
AUDU HARUNA
Hon. Commissioner for Health,
Kogi State
All these government people should be laid down in a cold raining morning, and flogged 64 strokes of the Cain by akpororo... 😠😠ðŸ˜
ReplyDeleteNonsense people..
Mtcheew
Ok
ReplyDeleteAudu haruna; what a shameless man
ReplyDelete