Kogi State govt dispels rumours of retrenching health/sanitation workers

Kogi state state government. has debunked rumours making the rounds that it is planning to disengage environment and sanitary workers.

Commissioner for environment and natural resources, Rosemary Oshikoya who allayed the fears of the state environmental workers said government has no plans to lay off any staff or outsource their job to private organisation.

This was coming on the heel of environmental and health workers union’s threat of industrial dispute with the state government over its plans to engage the services of private licensed sanitary inspectors in the state.

The state government has plan to sign a private partnership agreement next week that will see private investors actively involved in premises inspection across the state.

The union had argued that the involvement of private premises inspectors was never discussed with the Union and so have seen it as an attempt to take over their responsibility and rendered them redundant

However, the commissioner said it was a misconception on the part of the Union to think that government is out to render them redundant when in actual fact government is involving the private partners to train them within a period of time to attain required license that will qualify them for premises inspection as required by relevant environmental laws.

According to Oshikoya it is also not true that the Union was not carried along when taking the decision, because their chairman was part of the committee that had been deliberating on the issue.
She said that the new direction blueprint clarifies on the role of PPP in delivering on its targets for the sector.

According to the Commissioner, the Kogi State waste management Board law 2013 and the PPP law 2014 empowers the state to engage PPP in the sector adding that the PPP process include adequate stakeholder sensitization and engagement.

This she said was followed by meetings with traditional institutions and community stakeholders. at federal constituency level in 2017.

The commissioner explained that the participation of the private sector in environmental health monitoring (premises inspection) would among other thing Contributes to capacity building and on the job training of EHOs currently in the civil service, Improve residents protection and responsiveness and improve environmental safety and protection for the people through enforcement.

It will also strengthen the capacity of government institutions to deliver on their mandate at a cheaper cost as the law recommends that each premises be inspected at least once in 3 month by licensed environmental health officers of which the State currently have gaps.
Some of the advantages include an improved capacity of the sanitation and waste management board to enforce its laws, since only license EHOs can carry out certain functions, and the state has very few of such, she said.

She said that the insinuation that private sector involvement is ‘privatization’ of Kogi waste management board KGSSWMB and also that EHOs currently in the civil service will be rendered redundant is mischievous and unfounded.

“All interested stakeholders are kindly urged to note that the proponents of the ill conceived mis-information do not mean well for the people, the investors or the government are therefore encouraged to see the smoke and persuade such persons to clarify the facts and details with the ministry.”she said.