‘Gov’t not truthful to Ghanaians’

The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has rebuffed claims by government that doctors are demanding enhanced conditions of service this year.

According to the association, they are not asking their employer, who is government, to cater for their conditions of service this year but that their proposals should be factored into next year’s budget.

President John Dramani Mahama last Wednesday said “government will not authorise any expenditure on wages and compensation not provided for in the budget” adding that fiscal discipline requires that not a single pesewa is spent on remuneration outside what has been budgeted for.

The president made the remarks during the 80th anniversary celebration the Ghana Registered Midwives Association in Accra last Wednesday.

Government officials and some Ghanaians have criticised the doctors’ demands. A leaked document outlining the official demands of members of the GMA shows that they wanted among other things, clothing and 100 gallons a month fuel allowance for senior doctors and 20 gallons for the junior doctors as well as clothing allowance.

But the President of the GMA, Dr. Opoku Adusei, speaking with the media after handing over a water treatment plant by the TRB Foundation of the Royal Bank to the Tema General Hospital last Thursday, mentioned that government is ignorant about their proposal.

The Medical Director of the Tema General Hospital pointed out that the 16 person-government team are not telling Ghanaians and the president the truth as per the agreement they had.

“We are not saying that we needed money from government now. But per the agreement, the demands should be factored into the 2016 budget and implemented in January 2016 so we are not talking about 2015,” he clarified.

According to him, doctors’ salary is not part of the negotiation.

“It is naïve to say doctors are demanding money from government this 2015. Our basic salary is not part of this negotiation because it is on the single spine. The single spine, nobody can touch it because there are two issues over there, one is basic salary and one is market premium.”

The President of GMA continued that government was only going contrary to the rules of the agreement noting that “our position, and I want to repeat, is negotiation proposals and not salary.”

He said it behoves the government negotiators to brief president stressing that “what we have agreed to is that it would be factored into the 2016 budget and would take effect from January 2016. If somebody is not doing his work properly, it is government who put them there and he should ask them.”

He reiterated that they are not deterred by the hullabaloos making rounds, saying that those saying all sort of things they don’t know, should check what is proposal and they would understand.”

The president admitted that he was initially disappointed by the leakage of the document in the social media but their members are more resolved and determined to support the leadership for the negotiation.