Health Ministry’s unhealthy OT bill

By Isuri Kaviratne

The overtime payment for state sector health workers amounted to Rs. 2.2 billion a year but of this a shocking Rs. 1.74 billion was claimed fraudulently, a Health Ministry official said.

The revelation comes in the wake of protests from Health Ministry workers over the introduction of finger-print attendance marking machines.“The Health Ministry bears the highest overtime payment bill amounting to Rs. 2200 millions. But we found out that Rs. 1740 millions are paid for ghost work,” he said.

The official said Rs. 600 million from the Health Ministry’s national budget was allocated for overtime payments, but every year the Ministry asked the Treasury for extra Rs. 1,600 million to meet the overtime claims.

The official said a worker could get as much as Rs. 40,000 a month in overtime payment in addition to his salary. Fixing finger print machines is not an idea of the Health Ministry. It was done in accordance with a 2001 Government Management Circular, he said.

Gamini Kumarasinghe, Assistant Chief Secretary of the All Ceylon Health Services’ Union, said union leaders would meet Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva on 21 May to discuss the finger print machine issue.“If the discussions fail, we will launch another strike from May 22 onwards,” he warned.

“We sign whenever we go to a ward to work. And we have another separate book according to our grades to sign. Finger printing method has lots of practical problems,” he said.

Mr. Kumarasinghe said that the ministry decision to ask employees of only 16 grades to mark their attendance by fingerprinting caused confusion and suspicion as it excluded 200 other grades covered under the circular.

He said the ministry installed six machines but two of them were already broken. Ruling out sabotage, he said the machines, with each of them costing Rs. 100,000, broke down because they were not maintained properly.“This is a waste of money,” he said.