The Economic Management Team (EMT) is set to decide on whether or not to terminate the contracts for the construction and equipping of seven district hospitals and integrated IT systems in the country.
The turnkey arrangement with Messrs NMS Infrastructure and Barclays Bank Plc, London, at an estimated cost of US$175,000,000 was signed during the previous National Democratic Congress (NDC) government.
The beneficiary districts included Sekondi, Takoradi, Abetifi, Garu, Kumawu, Fomena and Dodowa, but apart from Dodowa which was completed by the Mahama government, all the other projects have stalled although huge sums have been paid for work to be done.
When the New Patriotic Party (NPP) assumed office, it commenced a value-for-money forensic audit of the projects and the EMT and the Ministry of Finance subsequently requested the Attorney General (AG) to review the value-for-money audit report and advise on the performance of the contract, as well as proper legal grounds for termination if need be.
The AG undertook the review and concluded among other things that the contractor has partly performed the contract where the Dodowa project has been completed and three other projects, namely Fomena, Kumawu and Takoradi, partly done with works at various stages of completion and the level of performance of the remaining, namely Abetifi, Garu and Sekondi in substantial or minimal.
As a result, the AG said in the light of the substantial performance of the Fomena, Kumawu and Takoradi projects, the contractor should be allowed to complete the projects, but regarding the Abetifi, Garu and Sekondi, the contracts should be terminated and awarded to a different contractor in accordance with the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663).
The Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, during a news conference on Tuesday, said the projects were abandoned before the NPP assumed office because the previous government refused to renew the letters of credit for the contractor in 2016.
He said the contractor refused to cooperate so the Ministry of Health was waiting for the EMT headed by Vice-President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to determine what they should do, but also said “we have decided to terminate the contract and find a contractor who has the capacity to come in to do the work for us as quickly as possible.”
DAILY GUIDE understands that EMT is expected to meet soon and take a final decision on the contracts so that the MoH will know its way forward on the matter.
Residents Protest
The inability of the government to complete the projects is causing uneasy calm among residents, especially in Fomena and Kumawu.
They have been complaining bitterly about the government’s inability to get the contractors back to site to complete the hospitals and are now growing frustrated and impatient.
The former Fomena Constituency Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Akwasi Nti, said “they feel abandoned” after the hospital project had been left uncompleted.
The District Chief Executive (DCE), Samuel Addai Agyekum, said a total of $93 million would be required for the Kumawu and Fomena hospital projects to be completed.
Ernest Kofi Adu