play videoKen Ofori-Atta (left), Kwaku Agyemang-Manu (right)
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Juaboso has alleged that the government has not made any progress on the Agenda 111 project because of a fight between the health minister, the finance minister, and the president’s appointees at the presidency.
Read full articletarget='_blank' href='/GhanaHomePage/people/person.php?ID=2380'>Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, and the appointees at the presidency, are all fighting over their interests in the project.
“(The reason why the project has stalled) is because there is a fight between them - Ken Ofori-Atta, Agyeman-Manu and (Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo) appointees at the Jubilee. They are seeking their personal interest. Ofori-Atta is not willing to release the funds for the project because he has seen that it will not benefit him.
“The finance minister and the health minister are at loggerheads over what they will get personally from the project and there is also power play.
“If you (an appointee of the government) want a project to get the needed funds, you must beg the finance minister because he is the family member of the president. If you didn’t beg him, then it means that the project has stalled,” he said in Twi in a Power FM interview monitored by GhanaWeb.
He further alleged that because the finance minister knows that most funds for projects are over-estimated and so if you don’t give him his share, he will not approve it.
The MP, who is also the Ranking Member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, added that the committee’s tour of all sites earmarked for the Agenda 111 project showed that not even one of the health facilities under it has been completed.
The project, which is aimed at bridging the current burden on some health facilities across the country, seeks to construct 101 district hospitals in districts without one; two psychiatric hospitals for the middle and the southern belts, seven regional hospitals; and the rehabilitation of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital.
It was scheduled to be completed 18 months after the resumption of the second term of President Akufo-Addo, but the president indicated that the deadline was too optimistic and promised to complete it before leaving office.
