Goverment invites 339 nurses to interviews
The fate of the 339 nurse/midwife technicians and nursing officers is set to be known after Ministry of Health (MoH) announced that they would be undergoing interviews from next Monday.
The health workers have been keeping their fingers crossed for close to 10 months after MoH withdrew their letters of appointment due to alleged lack of funds to sustain them.
MoH spokesperson Adrian Chikumbe confirmed the development yesterday, saying the Health Service Commission will conduct the interviews from Monday next week.
He said the number of successful officers would depend on the positions and resources available.
Health Service Commission chairperson Lillian Ng’oma also confirmed the development, saying MoH made submissions to proceed with the interviews on its behalf.
However, National Organisation for the Nurses and Midwives in Malawi (Nonm) president Dorothy Ngoma said they were expecting government to engage all the 339 officers without leaving anybody.
She said her organisation withdrew an injunction against government’s decision to withdraw the employment letters on agreement that all the 339 officers will just be formalised and continue working.
Ngoma said: “To us, the position has not changed. For us since they signed the contract, these people will still have to be paid from the time the contract was signed irrespective of whether they have been working or not. If they don’t get paid we will go back to court whether as a group or individually.”
Last November, Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodal Gondwe said government would use money that remained from the Global Fund pot to employ the officers.
However, according, to Ngoma, the process delayed because of the expiry of the term of office in December last year for commissioners at the Health Service Commission.
