However, several efforts made by CHAG over the years to reclaim the money have not yielded much, a joint communiqué issued by the Christian Council of Ghana (CCG) and the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC), copied to the GNA, has noted.

Accordingly, the CCG and GCBC are therefore calling on government and the Ministry of Health to as a matter of urgency, roll out a programme to pay all arrears owed the CHAG hospitals.

They said the payment of the arrears would help to ensure that the churches were able to run their hospitals and clinics. The communiqué issued at the end of the 2017 annual joint meeting of the two bodies said: “Our hospitals take loans from banks to run and pay interests. Moreover, CHAG has made a commitment that staff members in our hospitals and clinics do not use strike action as a means of negotiation and we want government to appreciate these efforts we are making and act accordingly.”

The communiqué was jointly signed by the Reverend Dr Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong, General Secretary of the CCG, Rev. Fr. Lazarus Anondee, Secretary General of GCBC, Rev. Dr. Ernest Adu-Gyamfi, Chairman of the CCG and the Most Rev. Philip Naameh, President of GCBC and copied to the GNA.

The communiqué, therefore, called on the government and the Health Ministry to appreciate and acknowledge the contributions the churches were making towards health care delivery in the nation.

Meanwhile, the communiqué has also called on government to work on the sustainability and quality of the free SHS policy it intended to roll out in September this year. It said the introduction of the policy was welcoming and that as a pro-poor programme; it would go a long way to ensure that most of the young people have access to at least senior high education level.

“We have observed with joy government’s efforts to roll out the policy on Free SHS education.As we congratulate government in this matter, we wish to reiterate our call for a deeper Church-State partnership in education”.It said if the churches were given ownership of their mission schools, they would have a better supervision and oversight responsibilities of the schools.

That would also enable the churches to uphold the moral standards of education which have become a worry to many a Ghanaian.