Dr Anthony Nsiah Asare, a former Presidential Advisor on Health has boldly accused the John Mahama government halted the operationalisation of Agenda 111 hospitals.
According to Dr Anthony Nsiah Asare, the Agenda 111 hospitals are not operationalisation due to the Chief of Staff’s directive to terminate all contracts after December 7.
He asserted that the Chief of Staff directive affected the smooth take-off of the completed hospital.
Dr Anthony Nsiah Asare’s comments come following President Mahama’s assertion that none of the Agenda 111 hospitals are in operation after the Akufo-Addo government spent $400 million on the project.
Speaking in an interview on Citi News, Dr Anthony Nsiah Asare, stated, “We started employing 15,200 nurses, and remember the financial clearance was given in July. Public health services recruitment is a process, it is not an event.
“So if somebody comes to write a letter that anybody recruited or who started work or whose name is not on the payroll, they should go home, you have revoked, then who will go and work there”, he stated.
He further added, “They are not operational because we have to put staff there, and the practitioners we have recruited are the same people they are sacking”.
Dr Anthony Nsiah Asare further revealed three of the Agenda 111 hospitals have been tooled and are ready to be operated.
He stated, “So if you are terminating the appointment, GHS will not have the ability to post people to these facilities, but otherwise, we have mentioned that three facilities have been fully completed.
We have done the tooling, and it is ready to be operated. We have the Trede in Atwima Kwanwoma, we have the Kokoben in Oforikrom, and then we have the Bokro in Ahanta West.”
Meanwhile, President John Dramani Mahama delivered his first State of the Nation Address in his second term to Parliament on Thursday, February 27, President Mahama revealed that over $400 million has been spent on the project yet there is nothing to be shown.
According to John Mahama, the Agenda 111 hospital projects were just a knee-jerk response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
John Mahama further communicated displeasure that the project, which was meant to improve healthcare infrastructure, has not produced any operational facilities.
President Mahama stated, “It is worth disclosing that USD400m has already been disbursed under the Agenda 111 project. If this amount had been used appropriately, it would have completed and made operational about 22 of these hospitals”.
John Mahama has also earlier revealed Ghana will need $ 1.7 billion to complete all unfinished Agenda 111 projects as there are so many unfinished Agenda 111 hospitals.
