Following false news broadcasts a few days ago and continuing to circulate on social media platforms, coupled with threats by some people claiming to be nurses that had been recruited to work in Benghazi -Libya alleging that our company (MEC) had taken their money after promising them jobs in Benghazi Hospital but (9) nine months down the road, Middle East Consultants is “playing hide and seek”.
The management of MEC takes this opportunity to clarify as follows.
In May last year 2017, we received an employment order to supply over 1000 medical professionals (Nurses and Doctors) to work in Benghazi Medical centre in Libya.
As a government policy for the licensed recruiting company to submit the employment order to the ministry of Labor for approval, the order was submitted and henceforth approved on 17th May 2017 by the ministry.
Then the company embarked on advertising for interviews which were later held for 6 days and 360 young Ugandans were recruited for the above mentioned jobs. Each candidate was required to pay a total of two hundred ten thousand shillings only (210,000Shs) One hundred sixty thousand shillings (160,000Shs) being for their medical checkups and 50,000Shs (non refundable) for file registration as required by law. We want to state it categorically that both Visas and air tickets were to be given free of charge hence we did not charge any money for these items.
However before the security vetting process would begin, Middle East Consultants sent a group of 6(six) officials including board of director members to Benghazi city to specifically asses the security situation and come up with a comprehensive report to be submitted to all concerned government agencies thereafter. This was on the advice by the ministry of labor.
On our visit to Benghazi city-Libya, our team held high profile meetings with many government officials including the head of security of Benghazi city, the Minister of health, CEO Chamber of commerce and many more and upon our return, a comprehensive facts finding report was compiled and submitted to relevant government agencies and our line ministry.
After our report was submitted, a meeting between officials from Ministry of Labor, Ministry of foreign affairs and our Management team was convened and it’s out of this dialogue that we were advised by the ministry of Foreign Affairs to put the contract on halt until further notice.
Acting on the above advise, MEC Management put the contract on halt and advised candidates who could not be patient and wait for further communication to go ahead and take on other available opportunities which we had then and still have up to now and have so far taken over 40% of those that took this direction and have been taken to work in different countries like Dubai and Abu Dhabi (UAE).
Others were also encouraged to pick a refund of their 160,000Shs that had been paid for their medical checkups and as of now ,over 200 people have been refunded their monies and this constitute 80% of those demanding and the process is still ongoing but coming to an end very soon.
Hence we are informing the general public that the allegation by a small group of youths headed by a one Yusuf and Abdalla through their lawyer Izak K Ssemakadde in a letter written to us claiming that we illegally recruited these candidates without approval from the ministry of labor is wrong and misinformed. We went through the right legal procedures and counsel Ssemakadde can at his free will come and look at our documents in our offices found at Tank hill road Muyenga any day and time of his convenience.
We would also like to state that the allegation by Yusuf and Abdalla claiming some candidates paid a lot of money more than 210,000Shs is not true, baseless, full of falsehoods with intent to tarnish our company image and we would wish to categorically call upon any person who could have paid more than this stated amount to come out and challenge us but also come with his or her bank slip (evidence) for a refund of his or her money since all our payments are made in the Bank.
MEC is Ugandans’ trusted and favorite external labor recruiting company because it has stood a test of time over years for being ahead in promoting values of accountability and transparency and has kept a clean record.
Regarding the Complaint of delays (9 months) however, this was caused by a halt that was put on our contract after the guidance from the Ministry of Foreign affairs sighting insecurity and Political instability .the ministry also identified another big problem with this work station were we were meant to deploy Ugandans and this was because there are two (2) established governments in Libya one in Tripoli and another in Benghazi yet our government recognizes the one in Tripoli and Uganda doesn’t have an embassy in Benghazi hence this would render our people vulnerable without any help from our embassy.
In this regard we want to salute our government and our line ministries that regulate us in particular for always standing with us and guide us as we carry on our day to day activities.
Ugandans need to know that we undertake a lot of precautious measures in and out of the country before we deploy any Ugandan to work any where in the world. When we are satisfied that the place where we are to deploy is safe and the government is also satisfied, we go ahead and deploy. When we are not satisfied and or government is not satisfied, we halt the process and look for better opportunities for our candidates. This is a business principle that we at all times adhere to for purposes of rendering good services to our country and its people.
The Management at Middle East Consultants Ltd has taken these allegations seriously and has since responded to counsel Ssemakadde through our legal person. We are also following up the matter to establish the possible intent of the initiators of the allegations and the findings will guide us on the next course of action.
We wish to call upon our clients and the general public to disregard the above allegations and treat them as wrong information aimed at denting our names and corporate image but also call upon young Ugandans to come and register for Interviews at our head offices on Tank hill road-Muyenga after Italian Super market and take up the available job opportunities in countries like Qatar, Bahrain, Dubai and Abu Dhabi (UAE).
We remain dedicated and committed to make Uganda a better place by helping our youth build their dream future through securing for them gainful employment abroad..
MANAGEMENT
