403 MINISTRY OF HEALTH HEADQUARTERS WORKERS TO UNDERGO QUALIFICATION AND COMPETENCE ASSESSMENT
Government has launched a major cleanup and staff realignment exercise at the Ministry of Health headquarters, with all 403 positions set to undergo a qualification and competence assessment.
In a ministerial statement issued on October 13, 2026, Minister of Health Professor Roma Chilengi said the exercise aims to strengthen compliance with the approved organisational structure, improve administrative efficiency and ensure that qualified personnel occupy positions suited to their credentials.
The Ministry said an internal assessment had established that 123 officers had been working at headquarters under temporary administrative arrangements, outside the officially approved 2021 establishment, which provides for 403 positions.
As part of the exercise, all 123 affected officers are being redirected to their substantive primary stations, where their official pay points and original postings are located.
The Ministry said the move is intended to address staffing imbalances and strengthen service delivery at frontline health facilities and decentralised administrative centres across the country.
Following the redeployment of the 123 officers, the Ministry will assess the qualifications and competencies of personnel occupying positions within the approved 403-member headquarters establishment.
According to the statement, every position will be evaluated against established professional standards and job descriptions.
Officers found not to possess the required academic, professional or technical qualifications for their current headquarters roles will be reassigned to appropriate operational stations that match their verified credentials
The Ministry said the exercise would establish a stronger operational foundation, improve governance and streamline administrative processes as Government seeks to enhance the delivery of public healthcare services nationwide.
-Zambian Watch.
Please go ahead and do it, it’s long overdue. We want sanity to come back to that Ministry.
HH himself is an MBA and should know that it’s only MBAs augmented by medical doctors that will most probably effectively restructure the moribund ministry of health.He has set medical doctors to deal with what is essentially a business management problem.Pushing personnel and inspecting competencies is not enough.The entire organization structure and it’s attendant internal rules,regulations, processes and procedures need review.
HH has consistently complained about rigidities and red tape hindering public service deliverables.But it is the same rules and regulations that are the causes.If you use disecration, you will most certainly get a charge of failure to follow procedures. If you don’t, you get dismissed for incompetence
The missing middle is what the MBAs can solve
Minister of Health, Professor Roma Chilengi, your initiative to assess health personnel qualifications and competence is commendable. However, I respectfully urge that the assessment go beyond academic qualifications and professional competence to include integrity, ethical conduct, personal character, and commitment to public service.
There are serious concerns and allegations that some officers within the Ministry of Health, particularly those involved in human resource management and recruitment, may have engaged in corrupt practices, including soliciting money from people seeking employment. These allegations deserve thorough, impartial, and transparent investigation.
I therefore appeal to the Ministry of Health to collaborate with the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to establish a safe and lawful mechanism through which victims and individuals who may have paid money to secure employment can voluntarily come forward and provide information, with appropriate legal protection against retaliation.
Such a mechanism could help investigators uncover possible corruption networks, identify those responsible, and establish whether recent recruitment exercises were compromised by bribery or other forms of misconduct.
The fight against corruption in public recruitment must go beyond assessing qualifications. It must also ensure that appointments are based on merit, integrity, fairness, and transparency. No one should be required to pay a bribe to secure a public-sector job, and anyone found culpable should be held accountable in accordance with the law.