The Permanent Secretary,
Ministry of Health
Fourth Floor- Youyi Building
Freetown.
Dear Sir,
CLARIFICATIONS OF SLMDA POSITION FOR EXTENDING THE 21DAYS ULTIMATUM FOR WITHHOLDING OF OUR SERVICE
I write to acknowledge the receipt of your response to our letter addressed to the leadership of MOH regarding our association’s decision to extend the 21 working days ultimatum issued concerning the fuel allocation for eligible medical doctors by a further seven working days and our request for MOH to formalize the promises it made during a meeting between our executive and relevant stakeholders at the Office of the Honorable Vice President on Tuesday the 22nd of October 2024.
As an association, we are very grateful for your prompt response. We also acknowledge the receipt of the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the proposed Standing Committee that will be responsible for monitoring and addressing issues arising from subsequent fuel allocations for medical doctors.
We want to assure you of our association’s commitment towards the process of establishing this committee, and as earlier agreed and requested in your letter we will submit the name of our association’s representative in that committee within the next forty-eight hours and we look forward to ensuring that the objectives of that committee are achieved.
Our attention is however particularly drawn with grave concern to some of the contents of your response which on behalf of our membership I respectfully wish to address in this letter.
It is stated in your response that two key agreements were reached during the meeting held at the Honorable Vice President’s Office on the 22nd of October, 2024, one of which is for the Ministry of Health to ensure that payments for fuel allocations for the first and second quarters of 2024 for eligible SLMDA members are effected and that the Ministry of Health will work with the Ministry of Finance to expedite the payment of fuel allowances for the third and fourth quarter of 2024.
Respectfully, sir, full payments for the first and second quarter fuel allocations for 2024 have been effected. Our association confirmed this on September 26th, 2024, after receiving a memo from MOH to that effect. Most of the eligible doctors have so far received their fuel allocations for the first and second quarters of 2024.
Therefore, there cannot be a resolution to effect payment for the first and second quarter at a meeting held on the 22nd of October, 2024, over a month after such payments had actually been effected. Also of note sir, is that doctors are not paid fuel allowances, contrary to what is stated a couple of times in your letter. Our members receive their fuel allocations through a fuel card system.
Our membership had requested in 2022 for fuel allocations to be provided as monthly fuel allowances included in our salaries, but the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Finance at the time declined that request, and it was agreed that moving forward fuel allocations would be received by our members through a card system. During earlier engagements between the leadership of MOH and our executive in September this year, the possibility of receiving our fuel allocations in the form of fuel allowances was discussed, but the leadership of MOH cautioned us that payment of fuel allowances with our salaries would attract a tax of 40%. Our membership declined to this and it was agreed by both our membership and MOH that we continue with quarterly allocation of our fuel through the card system with improvement in the current process.
May I also respectfully comment on the issue of the MOU. An MOU was signed between MOH and our association in 2022, following a strike action by our membership to resolve the issue of fuel allocation at the time. It is important sir, that you appreciate the origin and conditions under which this MOU was signed as you were not at MOH at the time. This MOU was the sole idea of MOH. It was prepared by MOH as a formal expression of their commitment to ensuring that eligible members of our association receive their 45litres of fuel weekly every quarter, and the president of our association at the time was summoned on very short notice against the will of the majority of the members of our association to sign that MOU. There was no objection from MOH at the time regarding the legitimacy or legal relevance of the MOU. Our membership in its quest to improve the fuel allocation process, as part of our demands on a letter addressed to MOH on 23rd September 2024, requested a review of the MOU proposed and prepared by MOH. After this request, the leadership of MOH all of a sudden realized that signing an MOU is not legitimate or legally binding. We wish MOH had realized that when it conceived the idea of entering into an MOU with our association two years ago. We would kindly appreciate if MOH will desist from painting the picture that the idea of having an MOU emanated from our association or that our association is insisting on having an MOU signed. Respectfully, sir, that is not the case.
Further, we had very succinct and reasonable explanations from the Attorney – General and Honorable Minister of Justice and the Acting Honorable Minister of Finance during the meeting held at the Office of the Honorable Vice–President on the 22nd of October 2002 regarding why an MOU cannot be entered into. We wish to express that we clearly understand and are in full compliance with those explanations. We only wish that the leadership of MOH would have facilitated such engagement earlier as promised. That would have certainly made a significant difference in resolving this issue.
May I further remind you sir of the four key decisions that were reached during the meeting held at the Office of the Honorable Vice-President between our executive and other key government stakeholders and chaired by the Honorable Minister of Health.
- Payments of fuel allocation for the third and fourth quarters of 2024 will be made within the next few weeks. The Acting Honorable Minister of Finance committed that she will work closely with MOH to ensure this happens, and to this effect, the Honorable Minister of Health had made pronouncements on several occasions some in the presence of representatives of recognized civil society organizations that payments for the third and fourth quarter fuel allocations for 2024 will be made by the end of October 2024.
- A supplementary payment will be made for fuel allocations for the fourth quarter of 2024, for newly appointed medical doctors who commenced work in October 2024 and whose names are not on the verified fuel list already generated, in order to avoid delays in processing payments for the third and fourth quarters of 2024.
- That fuel allocation should be provided soonest to the few eligible doctors whose names are on the verified list of doctors for the first and second quarters of 2024 who for reasons largely unclear are yet to receive their fuel allocations for the said period despite full payment for all eligible doctors for the first and second quarter having been made by the government.
- Form a standing committee including representatives from relevant stakeholders to be formed and charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the fuel allocation process is smooth and devoid of undue delays.
In addition, as a sign of goodwill, the Acting Honorable Minister of Finance also assured us that moving forward, the Ministry of Finance would endeavor to treat as priority fuel allocations for medical doctors, an assurance which is highly appreciated by our membership.
I wish to categorically state that our membership never demanded that we receive fuel allocations for the third and fourth quarters as a precondition for the ultimatum or planned sit-down strike action by our membership to be suspended or called off, contrary to what is widely circulated. Also kindly be reminded that providing the third quarter fuel allocation at this point cannot be a sign of goodwill as stated in your letter as based on the arrangement for receiving our fuel allocations, the third quarter allocation is already overdue, and we are not insisting on receiving our fourth quarter fuel allocation immediately as we are mindful of the fact that we cannot at this point as we have till the 31st of December 2024 for the fourth quarter to elapse.
May I also respectfully draw your attention to a statement in your letter which claimed that during a meeting held between our executive and the leadership of MOH on the 21st of October,2004, the Honorable Minister of Health showed us a document from the Ministry of Finance indicating that payments for the third and fourth quarters of fuel allocation for 2024 have been approved and also that the Honorable Minister of Health signed the PET forms for the third and fourth quarters fuel allocations for 2024 in our presence as a show of the ministry’s commitment. Respectfully sir, every member of our executive present during that meeting cannot recall the Honorable Minister of Health showing us any document confirming that the Ministry of Finance has approved payments for fuel allocations for the third and fourth quarters of 2024. Such document to the best of our knowledge could not have been presented on that day, as during the meeting held on the following day at the Office of the Honorable Vice-President, the Acting Honorable Minister of Finance confirmed that she would work closely with MOH to ensure that payments for third and fourth quarters for 2024 are approved soonest. The Honorable Minister of Health signed PET forms in our presence during the meeting held on the 21st of October between our executive and the leadership of MOH. Unfortunately, and of concern however, we had earlier been told by the Honorable Deputy Minister of Health 1 during an earlier engagement in September that PET forms for the third and fourth quarters of fuel allocation for 2024 had been signed and sent by MOH to MOF, which further undermines trust between MOH and our membership.
I wish to respectfully bring to your attention that our executive has for the past couple of months worked tirelessly to manage this situation. As an executive, we have for the most part over the past few months acted against the will of our general membership who had called for a sit-down strike action much earlier than this. This is not because they are unpatriotic or want to disrupt services to patients or destabilize the Civil Service’s governance structure as is unfortunately stated in your response, but because our membership has sadly been made to believe with strong reasons that its voice is only heard when its members decide to withhold their services. May you also be reminded sir, that the main reason why this issue escalated to this point was because of the trivial nature with which it was treated by MOH, including stalling the negotiation process for three weeks for no clear reasons, a period during which so much could have been achieved without getting to this point, including having the highly anticipated and important engagement with the Ministry of Finance which the leadership of MOH promised to facilitate but failed to do. Thanks to the office of the Honorable Vice President for facilitating that engagement which our executive found very productive and helpful.
Sir, I further wish to remind you that medical doctors in Sierra Leone work under one of the most challenging circumstances even among countries in the sub-region. We have one of the most abysmal conditions of service, but being mindful of our oath to serve humanity and our obligation towards our beloved country we make unspeakable sacrifices to serve within the demotivating available conditions. We are not asking for anything extra at this point, but only what we are duly entitled to. We are not oblivious to the fact that medical doctors in Sierra Leone have one of the highest thresholds for embarking on industrial actions for which we ought to be commended. I also respectfully wish to express our membership’s displeasure over your description of our request to provide a very important document aimed at ensuring transparency and accountability and our decision to inform you of its importance in suspending or calling-off our intended industrial action as adversarial.
Also, be respectfully reminded sir. that the Ministry of Health has an obligation to create the necessary environment and working conditions that should enable us to uphold the Hippocratic Oath we swore to. We also find it concerning that our membership is being accused of threatening to discharge or refuse to admit patients. I wish to clarify that it is a customary practice globally for health workers to caution health facilities on the admission and discharge of patients before any intended industrial action to prevent situations where health facilities are overwhelmed during the period of strike action. Our membership would also wish to have an engagement with the leadership of MOH at a later date, hopefully after resolving this issue of our fuel allocation to discuss some of the provisions of our country’s Civil Service Code and Employment Act that are relevant to the provisions of our services.
It is also crucial that I bring to your notice, the intimidations and numerous threats issued by some members of the leadership of MOH. Such threats include arrests of members of our executive, and seizing their medical licenses. Our membership views such actions as very unfortunate and is resolved not to countenance them. I humbly implore you to use your kind office in admonishing the leadership of MOH to desist from such actions and focus on resolving the issue of our fuel allocation. Our membership is also appalled by insinuations by some members of the leadership of MOH that the current position of our membership regarding the issue of our fuel allocation is politically motivated. I respectfully wish to iterate that one of our association’s blueprints is its philosophy of championing courses that are always and entirely devoid of any political motivation and the current issue is no exception.
In conclusion sir, I wish to draw your attention to the fact that all previous negotiations between our membership and government authorities involving ultimatums, strike actions or planned strike actions have ended with official commitments in the form of signed documents prepared by the relevant authorities detailing all verbal commitments made at the conclusion of such negotiations. These official commitments have always been the basis on which ultimatums, strike actions, or intended strike actions are suspended or called off. This is all our membership is demanding at this point. I kindly refer you to those commitments which I listed in the letter addressed to you on the 24th of October, 2024, and have been outlined again in this letter. As earlier stated, we acknowledge the commitment you have made towards the promise of establishing a standing committee for the fuel allocation process, and be rest assured that we will accordingly comply.
Sir, I wish to inform you that at a general membership meeting of our association held on Saturday the 26th of October, 2024, it was resolved that;
2) The document should be made available to SLMDA on or before Friday the 1st of November, 2024 which marks the end of the seven-day extension of the ultimatum given by our membership.
3) The membership will proceed with a nationwide sit-down strike action if this document is not made available to the membership by the end of the seven working days extension of its issued ultimatum on Friday 1st November 2024.
I assure you of our association’s continued commitment to resolving and finding a lasting solution to this issue
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Peter Mac-Jajua
Secretary General- SLMDA
Tel: +23278767090.
Email: macjajuapeter@gmail.com
Cc: The Secretary to His Excellency the President
The Secretary to the Honorable Vice President
The Attorney General and Honorable Minister of Justice
The Honorable Chief Minister
The Honorable Minister of Health
The Honorable Minister- Ministry of Finance
The Honorable Minister- Ministry of Labour and Employment
Honorable Deputy Minister 1 and 2 – Ministry of Health
The Financial Secretary- Ministry of Finance
The Bank Governor- Bank of Sierra Leone
The Secretary to Cabinet and Head of Civil Service
The Chairman- Public Service Commission
The Director General- Human Resource Management Office
The Chief Medical Officer- Ministry of Health
The Accountant General
The National Security Coordinator- Office of National Security
The Director- Human Resource for Health- Ministry of Health
The Media / Press