Government has asked persons deliberately pushing political angst against its much-touted Agenda 111 hospital project without basis to desist from such acts.
The Minister for Information, Hon. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah who addressed journalists at the Minister’s Press Briefing in Accra today, said Government had taken note of genuine wishes. He commended various actors including health based Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), Media and the public for raising risk factors that should be attended to for the agenda to succeed and benefit all Ghanaians but cautioned persons who did so with parochial partisan interests to desist from such act.
“There is a deliberate politically motivated claims of impropriety being cooked up against the Agenda 111 project. This included a claim by Member of Parliament (MP) for North Dayi that the projects were illegally awarded, and the contract prices inflated. Another was the claim that already 600 million cedis has been spent when no work has been done”, the Minister said.
The Minister assured the public that all contracts associated with the project were legally granted in accordance with approval from the Public Procurement Authority (PPA).The Minister added that the cost of the district hospitals under Agenda 111 is about $17m. This is about 50% the cost of similar projects under the previous administration which cost between $25m and $35m.
It would be recalled that President Akufo-Addo cut sod for the commencement of works on Tuesday 17th August 2021 at Trede in the Ashanti Region. After the commencement of the project, some political actors particularly, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) had alleged that the cost of construction had been inflated. They made reference to the discrepancy in commencement fees as stated by government vis-à-vis the amount captured in the mid-year budget statement.
Hon. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah debunked the assertion and described it as “totally untrue and politically trumped up”.
He explained that the $100 million is the same as the GHS600 million commencement funding which had been made available to the 217 contractors handling this phase of the project.
The Minister encouraged a healthy public conversation on the project but strongly discouraged any attempt to undermine it with the hope of making partisan political gains.
Source: MOI (PR Unit)
