Some contractors delaying Agenda 111 projects – Health Minister

The Minister of Health, Dr. Bernard Okoe-Boye, has clarified that a significant reason behind the Agenda 111 projects’ delayed completion is the incapacity of certain local contractors.

The Minister made the remarks during his appearance before the Parliamentary Assurance Committee to answer questions on various commitments, guarantees, and promises made on the floor of the chamber.

According to the Health Minister, the government chose to use local contractors on the project in order to guarantee local content. He noted that because certain local contractors are unable to complete the job within the allotted period, it has been decided to replace them as a key initiative of this government.

This has explained why the project’s completion timetable has changed.

Furthermore, the project has encountered difficulties since it was once slated to be completed in 18 months, including certain Chiefs’ reluctance to relinquish land, problems with land litigation, the incapacity of local contractors, difficulties obtaining property in some metropolitan places, etc.

Furthermore, Dr. Okoe-Boye emphasized that the challenges associated with acquiring property in metropolitan settings are the reason for the variances in project designs. The President urged that local contractors be chosen for the project, the Minister said the Assurances Committee, because foreign contractors had historically won contracts in the health sector.

“There are some Agenda 111 projects that the contractors have to be changed for lack of performance,” stated the Health Minister.

Before the President pledged that the project would be finished by April 2021, the Assurance Committee Chairman and North Tongu MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, questioned the Minister about why the government had not anticipated any of these difficulties.

By the end of 2024, 28 projects would be finished, the Minister promised.

‘We did an assessment of all Districts in Ghana and took a look 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’?

The main goal of the projects, he explained, was to ensure that people in Ghana could stay put in difficult times without having to go to a city center. He also mentioned that most of them will be finished before the President hands over power to the next government.

Source: Ghanatodayonline.com