Some nursing officers who were not recruited and are awaiting a second selection, say they are planning to drag the Ministry of Health (MoH) to court for anomalies that marred the recent recruitment process.
Soon after the Ministry of Health announced the recruitment of 5,868 healthcare workers across the country, there have been reports indicating that the recruitment process was marred by gross irregularities.
It is reported that some district councils, hired some people who were not even shortlisted for interviews, while some council and ministry officials are being accused of demanding K250,000 from some interviewees so that they should be considered first for the job.
Following this, some of the nursing officers who were not successful during the interviews, have tipped this publication about their intentions to drag the Ministry to court for the recruitment irregularities.
One of the nursing officers, who spoke to us on condition of anonymity, said they have arrived at this decision because they are very sure that the anomalies are a result of mere negligence from the ministry.
While wondering how one nursing officer could be posted to two different workstations, the source said the ministry is responsible for all the irregularities, hence dragging it to court.
“As an individual, I am calling upon other cadres who may wish to join us to file a legal case against the ministry so that those who messed up with the recruitment process should be brought to book.
“We are also ready to mobilize other fellow health workers who have also met the same fate. I think the recruitment process was manipulated or the ministry was just negligent and someone should be answerable here,” said the source.
The source further alleged that the anomalies have left about 156 deserving Nursing Officers on the waiting list as the ministry is expected to correct the anomaly before releasing the second selection.
Meanwhile, the interim Chairperson for unemployed nursing officers Lonjezo Justice Phiri, has refused to comment on the matter, saying recently, together with several other unemployed nursing officers, engaged the ministry on the matter.
However, Phiri admitted that the ministry has yet to respond to their concerns but he encouraged his fellow officers that he is very optimistic of positive feedback from the ministry.
