The Ministry of Finance has requested that the recently announced housing allowances for doctors and dentists be closely monitored to prevent any false claims. The ministry, which ordered the payments earlier this week to all doctors and dentists not provided with housing by the authorities, made strict monitoring of rent contracts one of the conditions requested of the Ministry of Health ahead of its agreement to the allowance which brings into effect a Cabinet ruling from June 2009. The Ministry of Health is concerned, however, that it will need an increase in Health Affairs staff across the regions to make periodical checks on rents. The situation, the ministry said, is further complicated by possible relocations of doctors to different regions and rented accommodation. According to Khaled Marghalani, spokesman for the Ministry of Health, the allowance of a maximum SR50,000 per year for individual housing for each doctor and dentist working under the Ministry of Health, will improve working conditions in the health sector. “It will help achieve fairness and equality between all doctors in the various government health sectors and go towards improving the work of staff by giving them peace of mind and social stability,” Marghalani said when the move was announced last Saturday.
