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Kwaku Agyeman Manu – Minister of Health

TENSION IS brewing at Fomena in the Ashanti Region following what looks like an abandoned hospital project in the area.

The
Adansi North District Hospital project at Fomena was started during the
National Democratic Congress (NDC) government era, but it has been abandoned
now, sparking anger among the people.

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Residents
of Fomena and its environs, including even the New Patriotic Party (NPP)
officials at the constituency and polling station levels, have also expressed
their anger.

Some
known NPP bigwigs in the constituency are even threatening to vote against the party
in 2020 if the government fails to complete the project which they claim is
about 80 per cent completed as of December last year but was allegedly
abandoned following a decision by the Ministry of Finance to conduct
value-for-money audit.

Main Project

The
contractors have moved from the site as their contract duration had elapsed
even though almost everything to make the project at the cost of $175 million complete
is said to have been ready but some alleged feet dragging at the Ministry of
Finance is holding things.

Significantly,
per the contract signed, the contractor, NMS Infrastructure of the United
Kingdom (UK), is entitled to a two-year contract extension to enable them to
fully complete the project but some top officials at the ministry are allegedly
preventing them from completing the project under the guise of a forensic audit
which commenced almost two years ago.

Residents
of Fomena are said to be angry about government’s decision to abandon the
project and as a result, some of the leading opinion leaders are even urging
the public to boycott the ongoing limited voters’ registration exercise being
conducted by the Electoral Commission.

It
has turned out that UK Export Finance, the financiers of the project, would not
accept if NMS UK is ‘unjustifiably’ replaced with a different contractor to
complete the project.

MOH Concern

Checks
indicated that the Ministry of Health has consistently called for the
contractor to move to the site and complete the work but the Ministry of
Finance is insisting it was still auditing the project.

NPP Gurus

Speaking
on Kumasi-based Kessben FM, Kwaben
Kennedy, popularly called KK, a leading NPP polling station official who is the
unit committee chairman for Fomena East said on Kessben FM that “we will not campaign for NPP if government fails
to complete the project.”

“We
are starting from today. We have decided not to participate in the ongoing limited
voter registration exercise and it is to send a signal to the government,” he
added.

He
alleged that the Deputy Minister of Finance, Charles Adu Boahen, was one of the
officials who should be blamed for the delay of the project. He gave the
government a two-week ultimatum to move the contractor to the site “else we
shall vote for John Mahama in 2020 to complete the project.”

Fomena DCE

The
DCE for the area, Eric Kusi, also speaking on Kessben FM, said he had written several letters to the ‘appropriate
quarters’ for the project to be completed to benefit the people but added that
he has not been successful.

NPP Chairman Weeps

On
his part, Akwasi Nti, the NPP Chairman for Fomena, predicted that the NPP would
lose votes in the area in 2020 if government failed to complete the project.

He
said some known staunch members of the NPP failed to attend the party’s
recently organized health walk at Fomena because of the abandoned hospital
project.

Akwasi Nti urged the NPP members to exercise restraint as he would work for the project to be completed soon, saying “I have gone to Accra more than 10 times on this project.”

FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi

The post Fomena Boils Over ‘Abandoned’ Hospital Project appeared first on DailyGuide Network.

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