Member of Parliament (MP) for the Abetifi constituency in the Eastern region, Dr. Bryan Acheampong, has revealed that the government has plans to complete the Abetifi referral hospital under the Agenda 111 project.
The MP, who is also the Minister for Food and Agriculture, mentioned that the hospital was scheduled to be commissioned in November 2016 under the NDC government but has stalled due to some reasons.
According to Dr. Acheampong, the NDC government in 2016 took some $600 million out of the funds allocated for the construction of the hospital to conduct research and lost the general elections in December.
Speaking on the “The Big Interview” with newsmen at Kwahu in the Eastern region, the MP said, “government planned to convert the Abetifi hospital project to Agenda 111”.
He added that “the Agenda 111 projects have different designs compared to the Abetifi hospital, so the government has decided to construct an Agenda 111 hospital close to the current Abetifi project and later expand the Agenda 111 hospital with the existing Abetifi hospital platform”.
Background
The government of Ghana, represented by the Ministry of Finance, signed a loan agreement with Barclays PLC of the United Kingdom amounting to $175 million to be utilized for the construction of six new district hospitals at selected locations and provide the Takoradi European Hospital with housing units.
The commercial contract was signed in 2012 with Messrs NMS Infrastructure Limited of the United Kingdom to design, construct and equip the six new district hospitals and one other and provide them with integrated Information Technology (IT) systems.
The beneficiary districts are Abetifi in the Kwahu East District, Fomena in the Adansi North District, Dodowa in the Shai-Osudoku District, Garu in the Garu District, Kumawu in the Sekyere District, and European Hospital in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly – supplemented with accommodation units.
The project also included the provision of Pharmaceutical Management Systems as well as medical equipment for all the hospitals. The entire project, which had a duration of thirty-six (36) months, commenced in April 2013.
About $136,158,648 was initially disbursed which led to the completion of some of the hospitals.
Disbursement of the rest of the $38,841,352 was however put on hold when the ruling New Patriotic Party, NPP took office in 2017 and commissioned a technical inquiry, which demanded a value-for-money audit among others stalling the other projects which had reached 50% completion stage.
Meanwhile, the government earlier this week revealed that 88 hospitals out of its 111 targets are under construction and will be commissioned by President Nana Akufo-Addo before he leaves office in 2024 despite being scheduled for commissioning 18 months after commencement in August 2021.
