The Director General of the Budget Office, Ben Akabueze, has said that the names of Medical Doctors who have left Nigeria in search of greener pastures are still on the payrolls of hospitals across the country.
The Director General spoke at a meeting with an House of Representatives ad hoc committee on Thursday.
The committee was set up to address the ongoing strike by members of the National Association of Resident Doctors.
Akabueze said: “When you look at the nominal role, many of the people who are said to have exited, to have ‘japaed’ are still on the nominal roll of the hospitals.
“This is because some of them are taking study leave, some of them are taking leave of absence, and they remain on the nominal roll.
“So, when they do the evaluation of authorised establishment vis-à-vis bodies in post, those bodies are no longer in post, but they are reflecting as if they were in post.
“Meanwhile, the hospitals know these people have ‘japaed’.
“They are not available.
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“But they are still being kept.
“That is something that perhaps is at the level of the Ministry of Health, which makes policy to determine how we deal with these things.
“Health workers can’t simply go off on leave of absence and have their jobs guaranteed there waiting.
“Meanwhile, there is nobody to serve the people because there is no vacancy there.
“They cannot be replaced.
“If we do not deal with this, even when you come to implement this one-on-one replacement, would such people be deemed as replaceable, people who have left?
“And if they are replaced and tomorrow the person returns, what then happens?”
The Deputy Chairman of the ad hoc committee, Tanko Sununu, who presided over the meeting, said it was important to find a solution to incessant strikes as Nigerians were at the receiving end.
Sununu urged the Resident Doctors to give the government more time to address their grievances.
The Chairman of Salaries and Wages Commission, Ekpo Nta, noted that some of the financial agreements were not met due to the current exchange rate in the country.
The National President of the National Association of Resident Doctors, Dr. Emeka Orji, listed some of the issues that led to the strike.
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They include the payment of examination and training allowances, loss of manpower, downgrading of NARD members by the National Medical Post-Graduate College, non-payment of skipping arrears, arrears of minimum wage, an upward review and consolidation of salary structure.
Orji said the association had been giving government warnings for a long time to no avail.
On the downgrading of NARD members, the Registrar of the National Post-Graduate Medical College, Prof. Fatiu Arogundade, alleged that most of the doctors attended schools whose certificates were below standard.
Arogundade said any Nigerian doctor who presents a certificate from the West African College of Surgeons would not be treated like a doctor from the National Post-Graduate Medical College.
The Chairman of the Committee of Chief Medical Directors and Chief Medical Director of the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, Prof. Emem Bassey, said no medical doctor on study leave was receiving salary.
Bassey said most of the time, the hospitals had to employ non-regular workers to assist in the hospitals.
The Chairman of the committee, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, assured the parties that the panel was committed to engaging all stakeholders to address the issues that sparked the strike.
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