Former Minister of Finance Winston Jordan on Saturday said that he had recommended a COVID-19 Risk Allowance (CRA) for frontline workers but that the former Ministry of Public Health had failed to provide the requisite information over four months.
In a letter to the Sunday Stabroek, Jordan said his attention had been was drawn to the news item `Jordan flatly rejected better allowances for healthcare workers – Minister Parag,’ which was published in the Guyana Chronicle, October 3, 2020 and reported remarks by Minister of Public Service, Sonia Parag.
The CRA has taken on great importance as it is a matter that the Guyana Public Service Union is threatening a strike over.
Jordan said that Minister Parag has been badly advised. He stated that the CRA was his idea. He said it arose out of an earnest conversation he had with a nurse of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
“I was struck by the passion with which she represented the plight of nurses in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Among the issues she raised with me were the absence of PPEs (Personal Protective Equipment) and cleaning agents, the absence of security in the triage area, exposure to Covid-positive patients, the lack of transportation from their homes to the hospital and vice versa during the curfew hours, the absence of counselling for nurses and their families, and payment of an allowance for the increased risks they faced. This conversation took place circa April 4, 2020”, Jordan said.
On April 5, 2020, the former Finance Minister said that he contacted the Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence via WhatsApp, outlining the issues raised and urging that these matters be addressed quickly. He said that he offered the Ministry of Finance’s help to prevent a crisis from developing, “including the payment of a risk allowance to frontline workers”.
He noted that in December 2019, the APNU+AFC Government had made a major payout – over $900 million – in increased allowances to the health sector. Among the allowances that were hiked substantially, was the Risk Allowance.
“When I indicated this to the nurse, she claimed that most nurses did not benefit from the increase. In fact, a number of other categories of health personnel suffered a similar fate. As a result, my recommendation to the Minister of Public Health was for priority to be given to those health workers on the frontline, who did not benefit from the 2019 increases, including doctors, nurses and nurse assistants, physiotherapists, as well as others in the emergency department, intensive care unit, infectious diseases units, and respiratory and other wards where patients with suspected pandemic influenza were housed. Consideration must also be given to porters, cleaners and maids. I also indicated that workers at the Palms should benefit, similarly”, Jordan said.
Collette Adams, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Public Health (PS, MPH) and the Director, Office of the Budget (DOB), Sonya Roopnauth were charged with the responsibility of putting a package together. Jordan said that he maintained an abiding interest in ensuring that the exercise was concluded speedily. Unfortunately, he said that this did not happen.
“Critical information was not provided in a timely manner, as MPH staff seemed preoccupied with getting the Covid hospital completed, among other matters. Where information was provided, it was partial and, in some cases, useless to the exercise at hand. A few examples would suffice:
“An initial list of those to benefit that was submitted by PS, MPH excluded those in the 10 Regions and GPHC. The exercise to correct this lacuna had to be painstakingly conducted with major inputs from the Ministry of Finance (MoF).
“Subsequent lists that were submitted by the PS, MPH were found to be defective for a number of reasons:
“Included in the list of those to benefit from CRA were the PS, MPH and DPS, MPH, a clear indication of a lack of clarity of who is a frontline worker”, Jordan lamented.
He noted that recommended monthly payments, retroactive to March 2020, ranged from $120,000 to $60,000. However, Jordan said that no information was provided by MPH as to how these figures were arrived at. This was vitally important, Jordan said, since he said that he had learnt that the GPHC had already begun paying some frontline workers around $10,000 per month while some workers at the Palms were getting $15,000.
He said that no information was provided as to the number of persons to be paid in each category; and the number of persons in receipt of risk allowance who would need a ‘top up’ to the CRA, depending on the category in which they fell.
The period for which the payments were to be made was also not identified.
In the absence of vital information, Jordan said that the estimated cost of the package could not be determined. This information, he said, would be critical, under any circumstance, in finalising any package of financial assistance. He noted that it became even more imperative, given the circumstances under which the Government was operating.
In the absence of these and other critical pieces of information, the CRA package could not be concluded; hence, the Minister of Public Health was unable to present it to Cabinet for approval.
“I was, therefore, aghast when the PS, Department of the Public Service (Soyinka Grogan), by Memorandum to the PS, MPH that was copied to the Ministers of Finance and Public Service, purported to have approved a Covid risk allowance, as recommended by PS, MPH. After my intervention that the approval was done without the requisite information being submitted and without the knowledge of the Ministry of Finance, this Memorandum was put on ‘pause’; it may have been withdrawn, subsequently”, Jordan added.
On August 2, 2020, the day that the new government took office, Jordan said that the outgoing Minister of Public Health reached out to him to bring an end to the inordinate time it was taking to conclude the issue of risk allowance for health workers.
In response to her WhatsApp message, Jordan said that he wrote the following: “Good morning Volda. This matter is with your PS who seems to have thrown in the towel. Until answers to specific questions are given, I can’t help. I’m the one who suggested this allowance to you. So, I remain a friend. But we have to do things systematically to avoid future problems, animus from other sector employees and sustainability over the defined period.”
He said that her response was as follows: “Okay I will get on to Sonya [DOB] and see what is needed. Thank you.”
“As you know, Editor, it is on that day that all Ministers of the Coalition Government demitted office”, Jordan added.
Parag in response to Jordan’s letter yesterday maintained that it was Jordan “who rejected an approval on the 3rd of June, made by the authorised personnel upon the Ministry of (Public) Health’s submission as to who fell in the category of a frontline worker”.
Jordan’s letter of Saturday points out that the Ministry of Public Health never provided the requisite information.
Parag said that she also maintains her earlier position that the Guyana Public Service Union did not protest when health care workers’ lives were in danger then, but seeks to do so now especially when the current Government has without any request or grievances being voiced, provided for frontline workers in the 2020 emergency budget.
