Myjoyonline.com has intercepted a letter from Finance Ministry giving clearance to the Health Ministry two months ago, to post 326 doctors qualified to undertake their two-year internship in various health facilities across the country.

The Finance Ministry gave the clearance for the posting of the doctors to begin their mandatory housemanship programme, in a letter dated September 11, 2017.

The effective date of the appointment of House Officers according to the letter, should not be earlier than October 2017.

The GMA last week described as a denial of healthcare delivery to Ghanaians, government's failure to employ trained medical doctors and dentists to serve in the under-served areas.

DCOP Dr. Ebenezer Ewusi-Emmim

Speaking at the 59th annual General Conference of the Association in Kumasi, President of the Association, DCOP Dr Ebenezer Ewusi-Emmim expressed concern about the continued stay at home of trained doctors while the populace suffer.

But the Health Ministry has been silent over the concerns of the managers of the health institutions.

It is unclear what may be holding back officials of the Health Ministry from posting the House Officers despite receiving authorisation two months ago from the Finance Ministry to go ahead and post the doctors.

The letter which is signed by Deputy Finance Minister, Abena Osei Asare, directed that: “The emoluments of the personnel should be charged against the Compensation Employees vote of the Ministry of Health in the 2017 Annual Estimates.”

“The Ministry of Health is to ensure that the House Officers have their documents processed in time and placed on the Mechanised Payroll early enough to enable the Controller and Accountant-General's Department effect payment of their salaries,” the letter advised.

The letter also directed the Health Ministry to “inform all Human Resource Managers at the various facilities across the country to process the documents of all the House Officers who are granted financial clearance on time to avoid accumulation of salary arrears and must note that the Ministry of Finance will not be responsible for the payment of any unwarranted salary arrears from any facility.”

“By a copy of this letter, the Controller and Accountant-General is requested to effect the payment of their salaries and make appropriate deductions of Social Security and Income Tax to SSNIT and the Domestic Tax Division of Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) respectively,” the letter concluded.

Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry says the financial clearance will expire on the December 31, 2017 and cannot be used thereafter.