Former President John Dramani Mahama has expressed commitment to complete all health projects which started in his administration but have been left to rot by the ruling NPP government.
According to him, these medical facilities which began under his regime were unable to see a finish line due to some inevitable reasons but will be completed if he is re-elected as president in the upcoming 2020 general elections.
“…abandoned health projects all over the country, we discussed it and we made a commitment that when grace smiles on us we will aggressively complete those abandoned health projects so that our people can have better access to health care.”
In the same breath, the former president also talked about operationalizing other health projects commissioned under his government.
“We talked about operationalising projects that have been completed but are standing idle like the University of Ghana Medical Centre. The bank hospital and several other projects that have been commissioned, like the Upper West regional hospital…Modernising the Tema General Hospital so that we improve access in the Tema area and many other places, Kumawu, Bekwai, Fomena, Salaga and all of them,” Mr Mahama added.
The former president and flagbearer of the NDC said this while addressing some executive members of the Ghana Medical Association at Korle-Bu, October 21, 2019.
The issue of abandoned projects has been a canker in Ghanaian political governance which does not only affect health projects but educational and other social projects as well.
Several uncompleted projects from erstwhile administrations have been left to rot at the detriment of the Ghanaian people.
The Minority in Parliament earlier this year, after touring some abandoned hospital projects across the country, expressed disappointment about the seeming rejection of such projects by the ruling government which started in the Mahama administration.
The outburst subsequently secured an assurance from the Health Minister, Kweku Agyemang Manu who indicated amongst other things that “…Our apprehension was that $38m cannot complete the 6 left, 2 of them not starting at all.”
“So we contacted the funding agency, United Kingdom Export Finance (UKEF), and they assured us that if only we could renew the Letter of Credit (LC), they would provide additional funding for the projects.”
Some of the abandoned health projects include, a 120-bed Kumawu District Hospital and Adansi-Fomena District Hospital, the Euroget Six District Hospitals project each with 60-bed capacity – Tepa, Nsawkaw, Konongo, Madina, Salaga and Twifo Praso – which cost $ 339 million the Euroget Six District Hospitals project each with 60-bed capacity – Tepa, Nsawkaw, Konongo, Madina, Salaga and Twifo Praso – which cost $ 339 million
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
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