GROUP ALLEGES DISCRIMINATION BY DELTA HOSPITAL MGT BOARD

UGHELLI-DELTANS United Against Bad Governance, DUABG, has petitioned the Delta State House of Assembly over alleged different standards used in dismissing and reinstating staff of the state Hospital Management Board.

In the petition to the House Speaker by its National Coordinator, Mr. Jolomi Akpiri, the group said using different standards at the state Hospital Management Board was not good for the state.

It said: 'All Deltans are equal and what is good for one is good for another. Injustice occurs when equals are treated unequally and inequality is a form of bad governance. Before now, the practice was that any staff of the Hospital Management Board, who abandoned his or her duty post for more than six months was dismissed for misconduct, insubordination or abandonment of duties. The list is long.

'Some consultants and many other employees of the board have at one time or the other been dismissed for abandonment of duty without reinstatement despite entreaties.

'However, as against the position, which to all right thinking and reasonable men is in line with traditions and conventions of industrial and labour relationship, a staff (names withheld) serving as internal auditor at the Ekpan General Hospital, who abandoned her duty post without permission for over three years and was dismissed by the board, is about being reinstated by the same board.

'We are interested in why the case of this lady is different and why she is being treated differently. As we had observed above, when equals are treated unequally, injustice has occurred, and injustice is a cancerous growth of bad governance.

'We call on the House of Assembly as the body responsible for lawmaking for the good, security, well-being, and good governance in Delta State to intervene and ensure that Deltans do not suffer discrimination and inequality of whatever form at the Hospital Management Board.'