PARLIAMENT HAS approved Addendum Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Ghana (represented by the Ministry of Health) and NMS Infrastructure Limited, for a restated contract price of $38,841,352 required to complete the full scope of works at the Fomena, Takoradi and Kumawu hospitals.
The Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, on June 8, 2021, presented the agreement on behalf of Minister for Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, which was referred to the Committee on Health for consideration and report.
The government, represented by the Ministry of Finance, signed a loan agreement with Barclays PLC of the United Kingdom amounting $175 million to be utilised for the construction of six new district hospitals at selected locations and provide the Takoradi European Hospital with housing units.
The Facility Agreements were approved by Parliament in 2012 and in the same year, the Ministry of Health signed a commercial contract 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 Ministry of Health proposed and decided on the 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 has been disbursed, leaving an amount of $38,841,352. The project was suspended in December, 2016.
The rest had reached various stages of completion and progress of work across all sites stood at 50.51% at the time. The suspension of the project was due to delays in the processing of tax exemptions contained in the contract, and issues relating to land availability.
Even though the project could have been continued with, in 2017, government’s technical enquiry, which demanded value for money audit among others, also stalled it.
A joint memorandum for the amendment of the Loan Agreement and the Supply Contract Agreement was signed by the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Health respectively, in order to get the project completed.
There was Cabinet approval and it was submitted to Parliament but the Supply Contract Agreement was inadvertently omitted, even though it was among the relevant documents submitted to Parliament.
Approval for the Addendum Agreement was therefore being sought to take care of the omission in order to satisfy the necessary conditions and also give legal backing to the facilitators of the project, to enable them fulfil their obligations under the contract.
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House