Following complaints, a team of the NTA Thessaloniki Regional Directorate, from September 2022 to April 2023, conducted an audit in a Health Centre of the 3rd Health Region of Macedonia, to determine the legality of private work exercise with remuneration by an employee of the Health Centre.
The audit revealed the following findings:
- The employee has been working in the private sector since 2006. In 2008 he was appointed as a permanent civil servant in the public sector and continued to work in the private sector until the audit was carried out, without obtaining the licence to carry out private work for remuneration as required by the legislation.
- During the period January - December 2022, the employee, on several occasions, did not observe the legal working hours at the Health Centre to the detriment of the Centre's operation and by extension the patients, as he/she was employed by the private sector.
- The Coordinator/Scientific Officer and a member of the Health Centre Management Committee did not properly exercise control over the employee's adherence to working hours.
The report has been duly forwarded to the 3rd Health Region for disciplinary action against the employee in question and the Coordinator/Scientific Officer and member of the Centre’s Steering Committee.
In addition, the audit report was forwarded to the competent Public Prosecutor's Office to seek any criminal charges.
Finally, the ΝΤΑ made the following recommendations:
- The Governor of the 3rd Health Region of Macedonia to ensure that employees are informed about the obligation to observe working hours and the conditions for performing private or paid work.
- The Ministry of Health to consider amending par. 2 of article 16 of Law 4486/2017 (115 A’) regarding the duties of the Steering Committee of the Primary Health Care Sectors regarding the control of the working hours observance by the staff of the Primary Health Care Centres, it is proposed that the duty of the Scientific Director/Member of the Management Committee (and not of the Management Committee as a whole) should be the duty of the Scientific Director/Member of the Management Committee, as only he/she can actually exercise the above duty, due to his/her daily presence in the structures of the Primary Health Care Centres.