FG, NARD Reach Agreement on Suspending Doctors’ Strike
Adjourn conciliation meeting to Nov 2
The federal government has reached agreement with the National Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria (NARD) towards the suspension of the current strike embarked upon by doctors, while efforts would be made to implement and further review the terms of the agreement.
The strike may be suspended soon after NARD’s meeting to consider the agreement reached with the federal government.
This decision was announced in a communique issued yesterday morning after a marathon meeting that started by 12.30 midnight on Wednesday between the federal government team led by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, and the health sector led by the President of NARD, Dr. Onyebueze John, and President of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr. Mike Ogrima.
Other members of the conciliation committee were the executives of the NMA, NARD, Committee of Chief Medical Directors (CMDS)/ Medical Directors (MDs), Ministry of Health, Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF), Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), Ministry of Finance, Budget Office of the Federation (BOF), and National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission (NSIWC).
The meeting that was convened following the strike embarked upon by the doctors on September 4, considered the Memorandum of Terms of Settlement dated August 31, 2017, with the parties addressing the six-point issues of concern to the members of NARD.
According to the communique signed by all relevant parties, NARD executives will meet today to consider the agreements reached in the conciliation meeting in order to decide on suspending the industrial action.
The meeting stated NARD’s position that despite the signed Memorandum of Terms of Settlement, the industrial action by its members emanated from a distrust of government commitment to execute its own end of the terms of settlement.
On his part, Ngige expressed displeasure that NARD members embarked on strike in spite of the signed collectively agreed terms of settlement on August 31, 2017, and conciliation in progress, in line with the provisions of Section 5 of the Trade Disputes Act, CAP. T8, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN), 2004.
The issues of concern to NARD that were addressed at the meeting included failure to pay the salary shortfall of 2016 and January to May 2017. On this, the meeting acknowledged the need for resident doctors to receive their full salaries, and deliberated extensively on the accounting difficulties encountered in the disbursement of salaries to non – regular payrolls labeled ‘Non Regular Allowances’ as against regular payrolls covered by the IPPIS platform.
The meeting further noted how 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) but has failed to do so.
But after due considerations by the meeting especially of the document submitted by NARD on ‘Salary Shortfall’, it was agreed that the OAGF has to employ checks and balances in disbursing government funds.
They noted that though verifications had been done by the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA), there was still need to carry out authentications, adding that payment would therefore be made directly to the affected FTHI for doctors and other staff that have been authenticated, and additionally, a soft copy would be forwarded to the parent ministry (Ministry of Health), Ministry of Labour and Employment, CMDs, NARD and NMA.
The committee further considered that FTHIs on list A of the document submitted by NARD that have been authenticated by OAGF were expected to receive payments on or before September 8 as OAGF tendered a mandate containing 8 FTHIs and pledged to forward an additional list of the remaining FTHIs to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for necessary action between September 7 and 8, 2017.
Also, that the second batch (list B) mandate will be treated as soon as their AIE is sent to OAGF since NARD claimed that PICA had verified the shortfalls.
Other issues considered at the meeting were the failure to rectify the salary shortfalls from August 2017.
The meeting noted and agreed with NARD demand for a 100 percent payment of salaries to its members. However, it was observed that the shortfalls were basically experienced by those not on the IPPIS platform termed ‘Non Regular Allowances/Payments’.
The challenges on this issue were discussed extensively and it was noted that the OAGF was currently capturing the paramilitary staff on the IPPIS platform and would be ready to deal with members of NARD by first week of October precisely October 4, 2017.
In this regard, it was expected that the 100 per cent payment would be implemented as from October 2017, as September salaries were already at advanced stage of preparation.
However, any shortfall that occurred will be treated together with that of August 2017.
To this end, “the meeting agreed that NARD national officers are to present the outcome of the re-negotiated Memorandum of Terms of Settlement to an emergency meeting of its members by September 8 with a view to suspending the strike once there is evidence of payment of the mandate as presented to the meeting, to the affected Institutions.”
It also agreed that “no member of NARD will be victimised as a result of the strike if suspended, after the emergency meeting of September 8, 2017,” with the conciliation meeting adjourned to reconvene on November 2, 2017.
Those who signed the communique were Ngige, Ogirima, John; Director (IPPIS) OAGF, Mr. Gideon S. Mitu; DD (EXP) Social, BOF, Mr. Olufehinti Olusegun; Chairman Committee of CMDs and MDs of FHTI, Prof. Thomas Agani; (Inspectorate), OAGF, Mr. lM. K. Usman; Permanent Secretary, GSO, OSGF, Dr. R. P. Ugo; PS (SWO), OHCSF, Mr. Didi Walson Jack; Chairman, NSIWC, High Chief R. O. Egbule; Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, and the Minister of State, Labour and Employment, Prof. Stephen Ocheni.