Dr. Bernard Okoe-Boye, the Minister of Health, has indicated that the slow progress in completing the Agenda 111 projects is largely due to the limited capacity of some local contractors.
The Minister made the statement when he appeared before the Assurance Committee of Parliament to account for some Assurances, promises, and commitments made on the floor of Parliament.
The Health Minister noted that the government involved local contractors in the project to emphasize local content.
Given the project’s importance to the administration, he explained that it was decided to replace some local contractors due to their inability to meet the project’s deadlines. This change has contributed to the revised completion timeline.
In furtherance, the project scheduled for completion in Eighteen months has since faced challenges such as the unwillingness of some Chiefs to release lands, Land Litigation issues, low capacity of local contractors, difficulty in acquiring lands in some urban areas, etc.
Dr. Okoe-Boye further emphasized that changes in the project design are a result of challenges in acquiring land in urban areas.
The Minister also informed the Assurances Committee that the President had mandated the awarding of the project to local contractors, as past health sector projects have predominantly been given to foreign firms.
The Health Minister said, “There are some agenda 111 projects that the contractors have to be changed for lack of performance.”
Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Chairman of the Assurance Committee and MP for North Tongu questioned the Minister about why the government did not anticipate these challenges before the President committed to completing the project by April 2021.
In response, the Minister assured that twenty-eight of the projects are expected to be completed by the end of 2024.
’’ We did an assessment of all Districts in Ghana and looked at the capacity of District Hospitals to take care of these basic things every primary health facility should be able to do. Assuming someone cannot breathe and needs a ventilator do they have a facility that can provide a ventilator?”
He explained that the main goal of the projects is to ensure that, regardless of where you are in Ghana, you won’t have to travel to a city center when facing difficulties. Most of these projects will be finished before the President’s term ends.
