Environmental Health Officers to be posted in January
Environmental health officers, who have not been posted in the last four years, have been assured that they would be posted in January 2016.
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According to the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, some budget provisions have been made for them in the 2016 budget and, therefore, once the process is approved, they will be assured of their postings.
Mr Iddrisu made this known after a group of past students of the School of Hygiene in Ho, Tamale and Accra known as the Concerned Environmental Health Officers, gathered at his ministry and the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) in Accra yesterday to demand reasons why as many as five batches of students from the school had still not been posted.
The Daily Graphic learnt that the students numbering more than 50 had been on the premises of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development since Monday to lodge a protest against being denied postings as well as their entitlement to employment after their training, although they had been bonded to serve the nation for four years after school.
After failing to secure audience with the leadership of the MLGRD, the students spent the night in the garage of the ministry and also used the washrooms of other ministries close by.
Why January 2016?
Mr Iddrisu explained that the January 2016 deadline had been chosen to afford the Employment and Labour Relations Ministry, as well as the MLGRD enough time to resolve all matters related to their postings.
“The assurance I can give is that we will commence work with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development seeking to obtain financial clearance from the Ministry of Finance and the Minister of Finance.
“I will need not less than 30 days to pursue that, after which I will need another 30 days after the clearance, if it is granted, to post you and we will need some time to again validate your being at work,” he said.
You are important
However, Mr Iddrisu said until the 2016 budget statement was finalised and approved by Parliament, not much could be achieved, “but we all can work towards the beginning of progress because when you are eventually posted, we will do a validation and follow up on who had gone where.”
Mr Iddrisu, therefore, urged the health officers to disregard the notion that government officials or the government did not appreciate the role they played as environmental health officers towards the social development of the country.
Review
Additionally, Mr Iddrisu said the government was going to review how environmental health officers were recruited, deployed and financed as part of the compensation budget.
According to him, such reviews would mean that a certain percentage would be set aside in the common fund to manage all environmental health officers.
Therefore, he said the ministry would make a strong policy recommendation to the President to allow environmental health officers to be absorbed under the common fund that would be disbursed and the compensation aspect be dealt with accordingly.
We will be waiting
Speaking on behalf of the group, Mr Prince Dzramado, described as sad the way and manner in which authorities addressed sanitation-related and prevention issues in the country.
He said it was sad that for the past four years, the environmental health officers had not received any form of postings as compared to their colleagues, who according to him, were posted at least six months after the completion of their training.
“Our number is less than 2,000 and that is why we don’t understand why 5,000 can be given clearance but for us every year when we confront leaders, all that we are told is that the budget had been drawn up and, therefore, they were waiting for clearance and for the past four years clearance has never materialised and we continue to live on the same promises over and over again,” he said.
He, however, expressed optimism that the assurance given by Mr Iddrisu would yield fruitful results come January 2016.
