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| toubab1020 |
Posted - 01 Sep 2018 : 23:49:29
I ask readers to read both of these articles in different news media outlets and make up their own minds in regard to these payments or maybe non payments 
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By
Madi M.K. Ceesay -
April 16, 2018
The Distribution of the Transport Allowance is Injustice…
I welcome the increment in transport allowances for the civil servants in the 2018 budget. This is long overdue as there has been no increment in salaries which are the poorest in the sub-region. Salaries in the Gambia are so low that it is virtually impossible for someone to live a decent life with it. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why we see corruption seemingly on the increase.
Thus, when it was announced in the 2018 budget that there will be an increment in the transport allowances, civil servants received it with joy and some form of contentment. However, the distribution is very unjust and should be revisited. According to the current distribution format, civil servants of Grade One through to Grade Nine receive a transport allowance of D1500 (one thousand five hundred dalasis); those in Grade Ten receive an amount of D2000 (two thousand dalasis). Directors, deputy permanent secretaries, permanent secretaries receive D8500 and D10, 000 (ten thousand dalasis) respectively.
One can see that this is far from being just and equitable. One can understand that there cannot be equality as the responsibilities vary very much from one civil servant to the other, but there can – and has to be – equity in the increment. Transport is transport whether one is an ordinary civil servant of Grade Three or a deputy permanent secretary of Garde Twelve, they both use the same means of transportation. They pay the same fares if they don’t have a car or buy the same amount of fuel if they do.
It is unfathomable therefore that there is a three hundred and twenty-five percent difference between those in Grade One to Nine and those categorized as directors, deputy permanent secretaries and permanent secretaries. For instance, we know that some senior masters in schools and principals are in Grade Twelve, but they do not enjoy what those categorized as directors, DDPSs and PSs enjoy. All these are civil servants and their work is as important to the nation as the work of the others. Why then do some civil servants receive two thousand and others receive eight thousand dalasis? This is a form of injustice that has to be addressed immediately!
No nation can develop without the input of the ordinary workers. It is the ordinary workers that generate the income of the nation, generate the goods and services to be utilized by the citizens and thus, they deserve to enjoy the fruit of their labour to the fullest. The top officials cannot – should not – be allowed to formulate policies which are only for their own benefits to the detriment of the common man. It is high time we recognized the contribution of these people and treat them equitably, if not equally. The alternative is a recipe for instability. As it is said, peace is not the absence of violence but the presence of justice. If we want peace, we must ensure justice and fairness!
Have a Good Day Mr President…
Tha Scribbler Bah
A concerned Citizen
http://dailynewsgm.com/hello-mr-president-2/
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AND
Friday, August 31, 2018
Ousman Sparo Touray, the secretary general of a joint task force committee comprising Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital, Serrekunda General Hospital, Bundung Maternal and Child Health Hospital and Sheikh Zayed Regional Eye Care Center has disclosed that they are set to embark on a sit-down strike if the relevant authorities fail to pay their transport allowances.
Touray was speaking to journalists yesterday during a press conference organised by the said committee held at the Serrekunda General Hospital.
The committee they said was establish in June 2018 with a view to follow up the unpaid transport allowances increment as announced by the Finance minister during the 2018 Budget Speech.
The administrations of the four main hospitals, he added, have made tireless efforts at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare from January to June in order to find out about the said transport increment but to no avail.
According to him, the represented staff of the said hospitals have been working for eight months without receiving their complete payment in contrast to the December 2018 Budget Speech.
“The task force committee has exhausted all limits of professional negotiations, but the affected individuals are still not paid. They are subjected to an indefinite waiting with zero hopes of receiving this payment,” he said.
The Ministry of Health, he went on, has informed them prior to the press conference that a cheque has been drawn from the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare for the payment to be made.
“This information received prompted a decision of giving the Ministry of Health an ultimatum and that if the payments do not reach our accounts by the 10th of September 2018, then the staff of this four hospitals will take a sit-down strike with effect from 11th September 2018 and no form of negotiations will prevent us from embarking on our strikes,” he emphasised.
Lamin Jafuneh, the spokesperson of the joint task force committee said the committee was formed in June 2018 to follow up the progress of the increment of the transport allowance, adding that there was an announcement that transport allowances for civil servants from grade 1 to 8 was increased from D500 to D1,500.
“Other departments have been paid. However, Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital, Kanifing General Hospital, Bundung Maternal and Child Health Hospital and Sheikh Zayed Regional Eye Care Center are yet to be paid.”
Salifu Conteh, assistant public relations officer of the committee said not only nurses are involved in the planned sit-down strike but the entire staff of the four hospitals ranging from the nurses, lap technicians, doctors and the pharmacies.
Author: Fatou Bojang & Awa Ndiaye
http://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/article/major-hospitals-set-to-embark-on-sit-down-strike |
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