The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has revealed that the budget often allocated for one hospital project in Ghana can build 5 more hospitals.
According to him, such huge inflation in project cost arises from a myriad of problems such as corruption.
He said this after it emerged that Ghana constructs a 60- to 80-bed district hospital for $25 million whereas the African Development Bank (AfDB) constructed a 150-bed hospital in Accra for GHS5.76 million without equipment.
He made the revelation while delivering an address at a Value for Money Conference in Accra on Monday.
Dr. Bawumia, who is also the Chairman of the NPP government’s Economic Management Team, has in various public commentaries insisted that the New Patriotic Party government has resolved to ensure value for any money it spends on infrastructural projects.
The conference brought together key stakeholders in the finance, construction and evaluation sectors, and is expected to come up with standards for construction and cost, to ensure cost-efficiency and effectiveness.
Dr Bawumia’s post read: “It has emerged that Ghana constructs 60 – 80-bed district hospitals for $25 million, whereas the African Development Bank constructed a 150-bed hospital in Accra for some GHS5.76 million or $1.3 million without equipment.
Even if we have to equip this hospital for some $1 million, the total cost cannot get to more than $3 million.
So, how come we are building district hospitals for $25 million, a figure which even excludes the tax exemptions granted on equipment imported for the hospitals? So, for one hospital that Ghana is currently constructing, we could have built and equipped 6 hospitals!
“This cannot continue. The Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government is determined to ensure that Ghanaians get absolute value for every pesewa spent, and this conference is part of a broad range of measures designed to achieve this objective.”
Read the full speech below
Source: Ghana/otecfmghana.com
