Kwaku Agyemang-Manu
The health minister, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, has dispelled claims that President Akufo-Addo misappropriated covid-19 funds received from donor countries and the World Bank.
According to him, the monies accrued from the donors as part of their support to the Ghana government to combat the virus and eradicate it from the population have been directed into the construction of health facilities.
The Minister who is also the Member of Parliament for the Dormaa Central Constituency in the Bono region, disclaimed when he paid a working visit to the Ashanti region to inspect government projects under construction.
One of such projects he inspected was the Sawua Infectious Disease Centre sited in the Bosomtwe District, adjacent to the Ashanti Regional Hospital.
The infectious disease centre is one of the facilities President Akufo-Addo had promised to build for the country to shore up the nation’s efforts to contain and curb the spread of infectious diseases, especially during epidemics.
“We are going to beef up our existing laboratories and establish new ones across every region for testing. We will establish three infectious disease control centres for each of the zones of our country, i.e. Coastal, Middle Belt and Northern, with the overall objective of setting up a Ghana Centre for Disease Control,” President Akufo-Addo stated in his eighth update on enhanced measures to combat the coronavirus.
Speaking to journalists during his inspection of the facility, the MP said “There are twelve of these now…’Nana Addo has received so much but we don’t know how the monies were spent’…These are some of the tangibles we have commissioned. So Nana Addo’s works are now being manifested and we’ll see a lot more going forward.
“Ghanaians will be amazed at whatever money they have claimed Nana Addo has borrowed and yet hasn’t done anything. That is propaganda. But while this is coming up, you will see what is there.”
Kwaku Agyemang Manu explained that when the government began taking receipt of the monies, they arranged to build infrastructures across the country with the funds such that “in case the infection continues or future epidemics we will have facilities well distributed across the country. So this is one of such facilities”.
According to him, the government initially started with 12 but “we believe by the close of the year we would have added a few more”.
Among the twelve facilities include the Sawua, Dodowa, Goaso, Sunyani, Cape Coast, Zebila and the Tamale Teaching Hospital attachment.