ISLAMABAD: The federal government has not paid salaries to the ground staff involved in the Covid-19 testing in federal capital for the past seven months; while salaries to the microbiologists dealing with the Covid-19 in Punjab has not been paid since September, it is learnt from various reliable sources.

According to sources with the advent of the Covid-19, the Federal Ministry of National Health Services deputed the staff working with Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) to conduct Covid-19 tests and the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the District Health Officer (DHO) office Islamabad in March 2020.

Sources further said over 120 people were performing Covid-19 duties but since the pandemic began, they had not been paid salaries. They said total salary of a vaccinator was Rs20,400 per month and Rs10,000 risk allowance per month, the staff had only received risk allowance twice, while not a single salary.

They said the DHO and other officials had sent various communiqués to the senior officials of the Health Ministry but as yet no arrangements had been made to clear the salaries of the staff. Sources said that the contracts of the staff had been renewed for a year but the salaries were still due.

Moreover, the sources also said that microbiologists working day in day out to deal with coronavirus had not been paid any salaries since September nor their contracts been renewed all across Punjab. The Business Recorder has approached the senior officials of the Health Ministry, the NIH and the EPI but they did not give any response.

One of the Health Ministry official Sajjad Shah told that salaries to all the government employees including contractual were being released as per their contracts. He added that the health minister and the secretary health are not aware of the situation, if any employees of any attached department of the ministry are not getting salaries since months.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020