The Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH), Calabar, Prof. Thomas Agan, has cleared the air on the issue of oustanding salaries allegedly being owed staff of the medical institution, insisting that, as at date, no staff of the hospital was being owed any dime as personal emolument.
Agan, who stated this in a chat with newsmen in his office in Calabar, explained that “In the month of October, November and December, we had shortfall which was a national matter. In fact, the first two hospitals to be affected were Federal Teaching Hospital, Irua, in Northern Edo, and Federal Medical Centre, Yenogoa.”
According to him, “Last year, the Federal Government reduced personnel allocation to all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) by minimum of 10 per cent, and most of us who knew this told our staff that we are going to have shortfall and that they may not receive October salary but they took us unserious. I was even blackmailed that I put their money in MMM, I don’t know what MMM means. Such is not possible because you don’t touch people’s money as they have wives and husbands who depend on them.”
“Luckily enough”, he said, “the Federal Government had since corrected it as money was sourced and paid to all MDAs that had shortfalls, including teaching hospitals. So, when people said we ate their money, going around blackmailing us, I look at them and just laugh because there is no truth in it. The teaching hospital in Calabar and most teaching hospitals in this country do not owe.”
Throwing more light on the promotion arrears within the hospital system, he said, it dates back to 2013 when IPPIS came in, stressing that the Federal Government has not been paying promotion arrears since 2013.
“For now, 2014, 2015, 2016 and part of 2013 promotion arrears have not been paid. The government has calculated it, it is in the budget office and all that is needed is for the Federal Minister of Finance to authorize cash –backing. The government is doing their best to ensure that civil servants in the health sector do not suffer unnecessarily because it is their right,not a privilege,” he explained.
On the recent agitation of the Resident Doctors, Agan said, for now, “we owe resident doctors their sponsorship allowance, and we are appealing to them to exercise some patience that by God’s grace, the government will take into consideration some of these things. Some of these things are things that if we look critically inwards, we can solve.”
Commenting on the outsourced services in the hospital, the CMD agreed that some of the services being rendered by staff were outsourced, but quickly pointed out that some of the staff were security personnel, cleaners, laundry and many others, the implication being that “a contractor will now bid for it and then recruit people to come and do those jobs. Unfortunately, something went wrong, and since 2009 till date, government has not been funding it. So, there is no budgetary provision for outsourced services.

Friday Nwagbara, Calabar