PARLIAMENT APPROVED on Friday a request to waive taxes totaling the Ghana Cedi equivalent of €13,318,745.00 on materials/goods and equipment needed for the construction of phase one of the Eastern Regional Hospital in Koforidua.
The taxes are Import Duty, Import GETFund Levy, Import NHIL, Import VAT, EXIM Levy, Special Import Levy, and COVID-19 Recovery Levy, and the request was made on behalf of the Finance Minister by the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, on Wednesday, November 30, 2022.
The request was referred to the Finance Committee and the leadership of the Committee on Health for consideration and report to the House under Standing Orders 169 and 178 of the House.
Need for Waiver
Members of Parliament (MPs) noted that clause 2.6 of the Particular Conditions of Contract (PCC) of the Commercial Agreement between the Government of Ghana and the contractor Messrs JV Tyllium-Ellipse UK Limited exempts the contractor from the burden of taxes, duties, and levies, as well as other mandatory charges imposed by Ghanaian law.
Project Objective
The project’s goal is to provide the necessary infrastructure, medical equipment, and ancillary services to ensure that the hospital is fully operational and worthy of the designation of a modern regional hospital.
According to the government, it will also create an enabling environment to attract the necessary healthcare professionals.
Background
The government said regional hospitals are an important component of Ghana’s healthcare delivery system. Regional hospitals must be centres of excellence and regional specialist care, requiring skills and competencies not available in district hospitals in the healthcare system’s hierarchy.
A parliamentary committee report indicated that healthcare delivery in regional hospitals necessitates more complex technologies and a highly skilled workforce.
It was stated that a regional hospital has a high concentration of resources and is relatively more expensive to run than district hospitals.
“The core functions of the hospital are healthcare service provision and training of health workers at pre-service and in-service levels as well as for continuous medical education,” the report explained.
“A regional hospital should therefore be sufficiently resourced, developed and supported to offer referral and specialised care to support primary care facilities within its catchment area,” it added.
When completed, the facility will serve as a referral centre as well as a centre of excellence for specialists, sub-specialties, and secondary care, and it is strategically located to serve the medical needs of the Eastern Region and surrounding communities.
The reconstruction of the Koforidua Regional Hospital, the report pointed out, falls within the government’s commitment to upgrade healthcare infrastructure in the country, as stated in the government’s 2016 manifesto.
“The reconstruction is intended to provide an ultramodern hospital to render enhanced healthcare delivery to the people of the Eastern Region and its environs.
“The project is also intended to ensure equity and regional balance to meet government’s commitment to the provision of universal healthcare delivery to the people in line with government’s vision under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG3),” part of the report read.
The government asserted that the Koforidua Hospital has only had two major structural additions since its inception in 1926.
The first was in 1972, with the addition of an administration block, dental unit, laboratory department, adult OPD with medical records, internal medicine, kids, surgical, and maternity wards with theatre.
“The last major upgrade of the current Koforidua Regional Hospital was in the year 1998 where additional Kitchen, Main Theatre, X-Ray Department, Laundry and Mortuary Departments were included.
“The buildings that were added after the last major upgrade had no real architectural value and that has contributed to an ad hoc nature of development and near obsolete facilities in the hospital,” the government explained.
BY Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House