Reps seek refund of N308m wrongly paid to doctors

The House of Representatives committee on health care services has directed the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) to return N308 million in salaries wrongly paid to its members in the past four months.

Chairman of the committee, Rep. Tanko Sununu said the N308 million had been with NARD and they are in touch with relevant organs of government to make sure that the money is paid back to government treasury.

He however said, the monies were not refunded because the account into which the refund to be made was not given to them.

He disclosed this after a closed-door meeting with NARD members on Friday.

“At this meeting, we resolved and the account number was forwarded to the President of the Resident Doctors for onward transmission to the members so that the money can be paid back to government account.

“We also agreed that because 1003 members of the association were not paid, the amount to be returned by over 500 Resident must also be paid directly to the members who are yet to be paid.

“The 446 members of the association who have not been paid, the National Post Graduate College should make a memo so that payment can be made,” he said.

He said it was also agreed at the meeting that, the overall, budget for the medical residency training should be taken over by the National Post Graduate Medical College which was mandated by law to oversee the training of the resident doctors.

“They should be responsible for making the budget presentation on behalf of the resident doctors so that they can be paid as and when due,” he added.

Sununu however disclosed that, they have not agreed on the issue of Resident Doctors under GIFMIS.

“We have not agreed on the date when they will be paid because there is a Ministerial committee assigned by the Ministry of Finance on that. We are informed that the committee is almost done with its work and payment will be done.

“We all agreed that the Ministry of Health has been supportive of the review of hazard allowance of all health workers in Nigeria,” he added.

The committee had summoned the registrar of Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, Tajudeen Sanusi, to answer queries on discrepancies in the payment of house officers.

It was alleged that while some were paid up to three times, others have not been paid.