By Vincent Gunde
Concerned youth in Mchinji have launched a formal complaint to the District Commissioner (DC) regarding unfair hiring practices in health positions such as Disease Control Surveillance Assistants (HSAs) and Hospital Attendants for the district.
The youth are claiming to have received information pointing towards irregularities and unfair practices within the Ministry of Health resulting to ghost names appearing on the successful candidates and were offered jobs in the Ministry of Health.
They have since urged the District Commissioner for Mchinji to initiate a comprehensive and unbiased investigation into these allegations in compliance with the Labor Act giving the DC 5 days to address their concerns.
In a letter filed to the DC for Mchinji dated 5th March, 2024 the concerned youth have kindly requested the DC to keep them abreast of the progress of the investigations and any measures to be taken to redress the matter.
The concerned youth have claimed that they carried out their investigations which has revealed that out of the 1595 individuals shortlisted for the position of Disease Control Surveillance Assistants, 74 were successfully recruited and out of this 74, 11 individuals were handpicked without undergoing interviews or being part of the shortlisted candidates.
They say out of the 157 shortlisted candidates for the position of Hospital Attendants, 14 were successfully recruited and out of these 14, 3 individuals were purportedly handpicked a development which is haunting the youth who attended the interviews.
The concerned youth have lamented that basing on the communication from the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Local Government as advertised, it was stated that applicants for Health positions should apply through the offices of District Commissioners of their districts wondering how individuals not shortlisted were included in the recruited list of successful candidates.
“Failure to address our concerns within 5 days, will compel us to mobilize the youth in Mchinji for a mass demonstration, resulting in the closure of all Human Resources Management Offices in the district and other unspecified actions,” reads the letter in part.
The youth have further requested that the recruitment process which has seen ghost names being given GP1 forms as employees of Government be suspended pending the completion of the investigation.
Meanwhile, on the Notice Board of social media, there is a list of ghost names so far found for some districts on Disease Control Surveillance Assistants (HSAs) appearing on Ministry of Health interviews results but not appearing on call for interviews shortlist 2024.
According to the list in circulation, Chikwawa has 16 ghost names, Blantyre 10, Salima 4, Chitipa 2, Lilongwe 16, Chiladzulu 6, Phalombe 18, Mzimba 11, Karonga 6, Ntchisi 2, Mchinji 24, Mulanje 5, Dedza 5 and Dowa 12.
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