Rs. 6 bn spent annually to employ private sector workers
The government pays private security and janitorial service companies around six billion rupees per year for cleaning and security services in State-run hospitals though the Health Ministry employs more than 35,000 sanitary workers and other minor workers.
The minor staff recruited under the direct influence of some politicians to maintain cleaning and security services have been idling, according to sources. Some them have been found to be engaged in various businesses inside hospitals during working hours, a Health Administrator, on condition of anonymity, revealed.
He said that a few years ago, the Health Ministry had filled
the janitorial and security vacancies that existed in all State hospitals, but since then, it had been recruiting more and more due to the direct influence of some politicians.
The administrator pointed out that every year about 5,000 labourers, who were the supporters of various politicians, were being recruited. Although designated as labourers, they refused to attend to cleaning and security duties. Thus, the security and the janitorial services were being maintained by private companies, he said.
He added that it was the responsibility of the Ministry to evaluate the recruitment procedure to see whether the recruitment was demand–based, need-based or evidence-based. "It was obvious that the recruitment was only demand-based. It was an utter waste to spend six billion rupees annually on private security and cleaning service companies, while thousands of Ministry employees are literally paid for doing no work," he said.
When contacted, Health Secretary Dr. Nihal Jayathilaka said that it had been the policy of the Health Ministry, from over a decade ago, to recruit people to work in the security and the janitorial services, but a policy decision had been taken to outsource the janitorial and security work in hospitals to private companies.
He said that the Treasury had directed the Ministry to hire the janitorial and the security personnel from private companies, because those two categories had been deleted from the Health Ministry’s slot. In other words the Treasury would not pay those categories.
"About 10 years ago, the Ministry took a policy decision not to recruit janitors and the security personnel to hospitals. The Ministry may have around 35,000 labourers, but in some hospitals there have been shortages of labourers," Dr. Jayathilaka said.
