There is no optimism from the Ministry of Finance either that a solution can be found for the 50 former employees of the Children’s Clinic, whose contracts have not been extended for months and who are still waiting for a positive response from the responsible institutions. Finance Minister Gordana Dimitrieska Koçoska justified the negative position on extending the contracts with budget limitations and the financial obligations created by previous hirings at this institution.
According to Koçoska, in the previous period the Ministry of Finance gave approvals in line with the funds available for each institution. She said that in this case as well, the data were not submitted properly. The minister explained that last year, at the time when approvals had been requested for service contracts, permanent employment for 38 people had simultaneously been approved. For this, she said, discussions were held with the director, who was made clearly aware that in the following year the fiscal impact of these 38 hires would be higher and that, for this reason, the budget must be adjusted to the new obligations.
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The minister also stressed that employment approvals are not related to doctors and nurses, but mainly to technical staff, underlining that every such decision must be in harmony with budgetary capacities.
“I must certainly stress that when it comes to employment approvals, this is not about hiring doctors and nurses. If you ask the director, let him present the approvals and let us see whether the Ministry of Finance has so far refused any request for a doctor or nurse. As for technical staff, this must be aligned with the financial resources we have available. I cannot agree with the claims that we have not provided support, when 38 approvals for permanent employment were granted and more than 65 people were hired, whether on a permanent basis or under contract. We cannot give approvals only for one clinic, because this concerns a considerable number of hires within one year, while at the same time we must also take care of the other clinics,” declared Finance Minister Gordana Dimitrieska Koçoska.
Following the finance minister’s statement, the former employees reacted, saying that it is not right for responsibility to be continually shifted from one institution to another while no one concretely takes responsibility or provides a solution. They added that they are not the ones who decide on employment, contracts or payments, but are the people who went to work every day, carried out their duties and enabled the normal functioning of the institution.
“Instead of everyone pointing the finger at one another, we expect all competent institutions to sit down at one table and finally find a solution. Workers should not be victims of administrative omissions, interinstitutional misunderstandings or political clashes,” the former employees said./Alsat/
