The Nigerian 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
on Thursday 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.
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