Ebonyi Stops CONHESS Payment To Corps Members

The Ebonyi state government has stopped payment of the Consolidated Health  Salary Structure, (CONHESS) to National Youth Service Corps members in the state due to lack of approval.
Addressing newsmen in Abakaliki, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Steve Orogwu, said it was wrong for veterinary corps members posted to the Ministry to allege that they were being victimised and marginalised over the issue of non payment of CONHESS, adding that there was no state in the federation where CONHESS was being paid to corps members.
He said: “It is wrong for the vertinary corps doctors to alleged that I stopped their salaries based on CONHESS because I demanded a percentage of the money or so; first and foremost I never had any direct contact with them as to make any demand from them and the issue of CONHESS  payment to doctors was never formally approved by Ebonyi State Government.
“But what I did was to give provisional approval until the state government comes up with a policy direction on that; but as at now, the state government policy now stands at the uniform payment ofN5000 as salaries to corps members as their stipends for the month except in the Ministry of Health where some medical doctors are being paid something above N5000.”
According to him, the initial approval given for its payment to corps members in 2012 was provisional until the state government decided recently to suspend it completely as no state in the federation is making such payment to corps members.
His words: “We carried out investigation to know the reality of that payment. Among all the states in Nigeria, there is no state that is paying that; as rich as Lagos, Rivers, Delta and Akwa  Ibom and other states in the country, non of them pays this particular package.”