Environmental Officers expressed concern about breach of contract

Wa, Nov.18, GNA - About 877 Environmental Officers and Assistants who graduated from the three Schools of Hygiene in 2008 and 2009 have not yet been posted by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, the sole employer of the products of the schools. The aggrieved Environmental Officers and Assistants said at a press conference on Tuesday that the inability of the Ministry to offer them postings was an administrative injustice, violation of the labour law, violation of human rights and causing financial loss to the state. They said the lackadaisical attitude of the Ministry towards the plight of the graduates, the statement said, should be a source of worry to all because tax payers' money was spent on their training yet the Ministry was making liability of them. Mr. Tahiru Luk-man, spokesman for the Northern Ghana Environmental Trained Officers who signed the statement, said the Ministry spent about 5,600 Ghana cedis on each graduate plus 1,259.28 Ghana cedis as monthly allowance for the two-year period but had refused to give them postings to help address the sanitation challenges of the country. "It is worrying that Ministry of Health should train us with these huge sums of money for preventive health care and yet the Local Government Ministry did not see the need to support its to promote quality healthcare for the people", he said.

"I wonder why such anomalies do not happen in any of the other professional training institutions such as Community Nursing Schools and Nursing Training Schools as well as Teacher Training Colleges but are only peculiar to Schools of Hygiene", Mr. Luk-man said.

Mr Luk-man expressed regret that instead of giving them permanent employment, the Ministry was offering them jobs on contract basis, which he said "do not see the light of the day".

He appealed to the Environmental Health Unit of the Ministry to give them appointment immediately and backdate them to cover the periods of their completion and as well pay them their arrears.

"We will not take kindly if these conditions do not accompany our postings as Environmental Health Officers and Assistants", he said. The Officers suggested to the government to close down all the Schools of Hygiene and re-strategize them with accreditation and affiliation to any of the public universities, since right now, graduates from those schools were seen to be of no use to the country.

They also called on the government to establish a committee of inquiry into the performance of the Local Government Ministry, especially the environmental unit to help address the anomalies. Mr. Luk-man appealed to the Local Government Ministry to release the appointment letters of some of the Environmental Officers who had served for four years without appointment letters.

The government should also reverse the Environmental Division to the Ministry of Health for better utilisation of products of Schools of Hygiene to help provide preventive and curative healthcare services to the people. Mr. Luk-man said the efforts of the Environmental Officers would help Ghana to attain the Millennium Development Goal on health through education and urged government to pay more attention to the concerns of the officers. The Tamale School of Hygiene turned out 644 graduates with 143 graduating from the Ho School of Hygiene and 90 also graduating from the Accra School of Hygiene within the period. 18 Nov 10