The Chairman of the Abia State Civil Service Commission, Pastor Eno Jerry-Eze, has said the ongoing recruitment of health workers in the state will be based on merit, insisting that nobody will be hired outside those who were shortlisted for screening.

Jerry-Eze spoke in Umuahia, the state capital, on Thursday, while monitoring the ongoing Computer-Based Test (CBT) examination for the shortlisted applicants.

She revealed that out of 2,035 people who applied for the 771 advertised vacant positions, 1,752 people were shortlisted for the CBT screening.

The chairman noted that the exercise, which started on Tuesday, August 26, has screened applicants for Optometrist, medical lab, scientists, nurses, and consultants, adding that a mock-up CBT examination will be conducted for those who missed the exams on Thursday next week.

She said, “We are conducting this CBT examination to fill up some vacant positions in the Ministry of Health. The exercise started on Tuesday this week. We started screening for nurses yesterday. Today, we’re continuing with them. We have about five batches of nurses that we are doing the assessments for.

“After this CBT exam, those who have passed will be invited for oral interviews.

“We received 2,035 applications, and we were able to shortlist 1,752 applications, meaning that we had to go through all the CVs because we had a portal we created, and people had to go there after they saw the adverts and applied.

“So we had 1,752 people that were shortlisted based on them meeting the criteria. And these are the people, the 1,752 people that we have invited between Tuesday 26th and today the 28th August to do the assessments, the CBT tests. So it’s been going very well. Everything has been very organized.

“We’ve been collaborating with the Ministry of Health and have staff from the Civil Service Commission here, and we also have staff from the Ministry of Health, which is also part of the process that they’re doing. We are all invigilating together. Everything has been peaceful.

“We’ve all had our medical team from the Ministry of Health here in case there’s any medical emergency. So we have security. Everything has been perfect.”

She maintained that only those who are successful in all the process will be hired in the end.

“If you saw what happened with the employment of teachers, you know that the interviews were done and the people who passed got the job and they’ve been posted to different places.

“So we are here for serious business. Anybody who passes successfully will be employed based on the waiver that His Excellency has given for this process. So based on the numbers for each of these categories, we would definitely put the best people to fill those positions”.

“If we have more people who pass the exam, we will definitely keep them if any opening shows up, they’ll be the first people who will come. So we’re not going to discard them,” she assured.

Some of the applicants, including Jumbo Emmanuel, a Cardiothoracic nurse, Onukawa Blessing (nurse midwife), and Ukanwa Chioma, expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the CBT test and that the exam was transparent without any glitches.

Emmanuel said, “Okay, it was quite a great thing, although it’s just similar things we have been seeing in schools and what we have been practising. So it’s just a test to know if we are actually capable of getting the work.

“There was no issue from the system, everything went absolutely fine. I’m impressed with the outcome of the exam it was transparent”.

Also, Chioma commended the administration of Governor Otti for the smooth conduct of the CBT exam.

“I came in this morning, and everything was orderly and in time, too. There was nothing like driving people around, there was nothing like who do you know I am. And I’m happy that even the CBT was in a way that in the end of the whole test you see your test score and you know whether you are going or if you made it or not.

“And I want to urge and request that let the further processes that will be done, let it still go as said,” she said. (The PUNCH)