The Association of Public and Environmental Health Officers (APEHOG) a registered non-profitable association of Public Health professionals in the Gambia has threatened to lay down tools if their promised allowances are not paid before the 5th of May 2022.
In early 2021, the Ministry of Health proposed to create a specific allowance for the Health Minister, PhD holders and Medical doctors serving the Ministry of Health. This APEHOG believes was very discriminatory and has caused unprecedented chaos not only within the public health cadre but within the entire Ministry of Health.
The leadership of the association, therefore, deemed it fitting to collaborate with other sister cadres who are been unfairly excluded from the new allowance scheme.
According to the association because they all (Medical Doctors, Directors, Program Managers, Program Officers, Health Facility staff and front liners) provide the same services to the population they (APEHOG) are not to be seen and treated differently than their sister cadres. This they say is in contravention of the General orders and civil services code of conduct.
“The general membership of the Association of Public and Environmental Health Officers has agreed that as an Association with mass representation in the Ministry of Health we strongly recommend that the allowance issue be solved before the 5th May 2022. Contrary to meeting demand by the aforesaid date, Public Health Officers across the country will lay down their tools,” a statement read by the associations president Nuha Fofana states.
The association further reveals that it has sent several letters to the authorities concerned but has not had the expected outcome. In the first letter addressed to the Secretary-General and Head of Civil Service dated 2nd March 2021, the association in collaboration with the National Pharmacy Staff Association (NPSA) highlighted their dissatisfaction regarding the bizarre decision and asked for the immediate suspension /reversal of the decision on the approval of allowances for few selected individuals, a decision they consider discriminatory and unfair to the hard-working Directors, Program Managers, Program Officers, Health Facility staff and front liners.
It further suggested that the authorities use the proposed allowance to initiate the appointment of health labourers, watchmen and orderlies across the country as soon as possible, pointing out that some have been volunteers for over 2 years without getting a salary. APEHOG also called on authorities to initiate a review for allowance increment for all cadres in the Ministry of Health.
This letter it says was followed up by numerous follow-ups and consultations with the Ministry of Health. One letter to the office of the Secretary-General and Head of Civil Service Ref: GAPHO/SG/01/21 was dated 28th September 2021.
According to the association on 6th October 2021, Amadou Daboe the Principal Secretary in the Health Ministry on behalf of the permanent secretary wrote to the Vice President of the Association of Public and Environmental Health Officers of The Gambia. The said letter bore the following reference. AD260/418/01PART1(87) and read.
“Relative to the above captioned subject matter and to further convey that the ministry is seriously working on paying equal allowance to that cadre and calculation already done.”
To the association’s dismay, after five months since receipt of this letter, no Public Health Officer within the country had started benefiting from the said allowance even though a specific cadre started benefitting from a new allowance scheme since September 2021.
It is for this reason that the Association of Public and Environmental Health Officers has decided to raise concern about what is considers an ‘unjust treatment’ and hopes that a consensus can be reached to avoid any disruption to its services.
The association’s statement noted that although they as public health officers will lay down tools if their allowances are not paid before 5th April 2022 they will in the meantime endeavour to keep all their members calm and focused on delivering quality health care services to the people.
Meanwhile, they wish to reassure all their members that as long as they align with the decisions of the association, the executive and the entire association will guard them against any unforeseen circumstances.
