01/06/2024
SERIOUS IRREGULARITIES IN ANNUAL TRANSFER LIST OF GRADE MEDICAL OFFICERS - 2024
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This is to bring your immediate and earnest attention to a pressing issue of major irregularities in the annual
transfer list of grade medical officers – 2024.
The transfer list plays a pivotal role in transferring grade medical officers annually. It ensures that the medical officers are allocated appropriately and in a justifiable manner. Without a well-managed and transparent annual transfer list, it can cause imbalance in healthcare provision leading to disparities in access to patient care, burnout and dissatisfaction among medical officers affecting their morale, dignity and misallocation of resources leading to inefficiencies. Further, the importance of a transparent transfer list is
remarkable in the context of current brain drain as well.
Therefore, we kindly request you to investigate the irregularities to ensure a smooth, transparent and fair transfer process without any further delay. Some of the irregularities are highlighted as follows;
1. Some of the vacancies which are required to be advertised have not been advertised as per the
established process;
2. Some of the advertised vacancies have been omitted or removed from the interim list
(for example:
MO Pediatrics-OPD at PGH Kurunegala, MOIC-PMCU at Kahengama-West);
3. Non-adherence of publishing the full list of vacancies;
4. High intervention of the Trade Union and active members of the Trade Union at the
hospital/institution level.
We have observed that the current practice is to obtain details of the number of vacancies from the Trade Union and prepare the annual vacancy list including temporary transfers. This practice does not reflect the real requirement of the institution and ultimately leads to corruption and hinder transparency of the annual list. This wrongful practice further force medical officers to go behind the Trade Union in order to get their transfers affecting the dignity of the medical professionals and the profession. According to the Establishment Code, the scope of a Trade Union is to involve if there is an unjustified transfer or transfer process to ensure that the members of the Trade Union provided with a fair and justifiable transfer according to their merit order. Therefore, this unauthorized involvement of the Trade Union violates the provisions of
the Establishment Code.
In this context we suggest, the requirements of the institutions should be collected from the respective institutions and forward within the hierarchy without any involvement of Trade Union. All vacancy posts should be advertised and the advertised posts to be allocated according to the merit order by the medical
administration following the policy of the Ministry of Health.
In addition to the above, we have analyzed the concerns raised by members including non-members of DASL and we are open for further discussions with you on this matter at your earliest convenience.
Considering the above factors, we urge you to draw your immediate attention to the above matter and to adopt a fair, equitable and transparent system in respect of transfers of grade medical officers
