Resident doctors meet today to review FG’s offer
The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has agreed to meet today to consider the renegotiated Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) reached with the Federal Government.
The resolution was reached at the end of the conciliation meeting held on Wednesday with the federal government’s negotiation team chaired by the Minister of Labour and Employment Dr Chris Ngige.
The meeting which lasted till 3am yesterday saw both parties deliberating on wide range of issues bordering on the demands of the striking resident doctors.
At the end of the meeting, a communiqué was adopted and signed by the parties at 2:57am.
The parties in the Memorandum of Terms of Settlement at the meeting also resolved that the nationwide industrial action should be suspended as soon as a payment alert is received from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday as promised by the Federal Government’s team led by Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment.
“NARD national officers should present the outcome of the renegotiated memorandum of terms of settlement to an emergency meeting of its members by Friday, September 8, 2017 with a view to suspending the strike once there is an evidence of payment of the mandate presented to the meeting to the affected institutions,” the Memorandum of Terms of Settlement read in part.
However, findings by Daily Trust revealed that as at yesterday evening payment had not been made to the affected institutions. As at the time of going to press yesterday evening , the spokesman of the association, Dr Charles Asinobi said no payment had been made.
The evidence of payment of the mandate is key to suspending the strike as reached in the agreement between the federal government and striking resident doctors yesterday morning.
The meeting yesterday had earlier noted that the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) “did receive one Authority to Incur Expenditure (AIE) of the sum of N13.2 billion to address the shortfalls in Public Sector including payment of the salaries of affected doctors in Federal Tertiary Health Institutions (FTHI).”
On “Salary Shortfall” raised by the resident doctors, it was agreed that the OAGF should employ checks and balances in disbursing government funds.
Also, it was agreed that all resident doctors should be captured on IPPIS platform by the end of October 2017 and payment made to their respective health institutions, after verification of the affected doctors.
They also reached accord that all the federal health institutions already verified should be paid on or before 8th September, 2017 and subsequently pay others after following due process.
The parties also agreed that NARD members are on pensionable appointment and as such the Federal Ministry of Health in conjunction with Office of Accountant General of the Federation and Budget Office of the Federation should take necessary steps to ensure that adequate budgetary allocations are made to cover the pension requirements of NARD members.
The Federal Government in the Memorandum of Understanding promised to appeal to state governments and organisations that owe salary shortfalls/ emoluments to health workers to make genuine efforts to liquidate the arrears.
The Conciliation Meeting was adjourned to reconvene on November 2nd.