Deputy Health Minister Kingsley Aboagye-Gyedu has accused some personalities of registering the newly built 650-bed University of Ghana health facility in their names.
Speaking to a local radio station in Accra, Mr Aboagye-Gyedu said checks from the Registrar General’s Department indicate that the centre has been registered in the names of these three individuals under the name ‘University of Ghana Medical Centre’.
“It will shock Ghanaians to hear that a limited liability company such as the facility has been registered in the names of Rojo Mettle-Nunoo, Prof Ernest Aryeetey and one Prof Aaron Nii Lante Lawson in their respective names,” he alleged.
Mr Aboagye-Gyedu questioned the motive behind the registration of the centre in the said names.
“Are they managing the facility in their personal capacities or in the name of the university? Or are they managing it in the name of the Ministry of Health or Ghana Health Service?” he asked.
This new development follows recent misunderstanding between management of the University of Ghana and the government over who should manage the health facility which has led to the centre not being used a year after its commissioning.
The minister added that government will need a total of $6 million dollars to complete the phase one of the project.
“The matter recently came up at a cabinet meeting which approval has been given to the Health Ministry to seek for about 48 to 50 million dollars which the $6 million of the amount will be used to operationalise the phase one of the project whilst the remaining one will be used to commence phase II of the project,” he revealed.
Meanwhile, government has established a mechanism to address all outstanding issues relating to the determination of the ownership and management of the University of Ghana Medical Centre.
Prof Aryeetey Responds
Prof Aryeetey, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, has explained that the University Council authorised him and Prof Lawson to front for the registration of the hospital because when registering companies, the names of the directors are provided.
He, however, said he had voluntarily stepped down from the position as far back as early last year. “I have already stepped down, I stepped down as director a long time ago, last year; of course, I know that my position made a number of people uncomfortable and I’ve already stepped down,” he told Starr FM.
Prof Aryeetey insisted that the decisions he took vis-à-vis the hospital when he was vice chancellor were all backed by the University Council.
The former vice chancellor pointed out that the issue between the Ministry of Health and the University of Ghana should not be personalised, although the minister and his deputy per media reports seem to be doing so.
According to him, “All it will take is for the Ministry of Health to comply with the MoU, that’s all; it’s as simple as that. Comply with the MoU. The MoU provides that the government of Ghana, through regular subvention, will take care of this hospital for the first five years, after these five years, the hospital should be able to stand on its own, pay its staff, pay for consumables, pay for maintenance, pay for anything that any company should be able to do.”
Background
The $217million University of Ghana Medical Centre has been at the centre of a heated dispute between the Health Ministry and authorities of the school.
The loan for the construction of the facility was secured in 2012 and three years after completion of phase one, the John Mahama government in 2015 signed an MoU with UG authorities, stating the ownership of the centre.
In the agreement, the government is to hand over management of the facility to the university, consigning the Health Ministry to a supervising role.