The Government has announced that it is ready to begin the construction of 111 district, regional and specialised hospitals, dubbed Agenda 111, which it announced in April 2020.
The Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has affirmed such readiness with the fact that the government has made available $100million as funding for the commencement of the projects.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is expected to observe the commencement of work on one of the health facilities at Trede in the Atwima Kwawuma District of the Ashanti Region today and that will signify the commencement of construction works at the selected sites across the country.
The Ghanaian Times is happy that the Akufo-Addo-led administration is doing all it can to fulfil promises, especially those that have greater impact on the lives of the people.
Building the 111 hospitals is great but the paper deems it a greater move for the government to include in the projects specialised hospitals as distinct from two new mental hospitals, which are specialised hospitals anyway.
Most of the time, general hospitals are the focus of governments because specialised ones are more expensive due to the special facilities and professionals needed to run them.
When this happens, the have-not with special health conditions are denied the required attention, with the have incurring extra cost to go abroad for treatment.
Time is of essence in executing projects and so we encourage the government to strictly and continuously monitor the contractors undertaking the projects to work to schedule so that, for instance, the 101 district hospitals can be completed within the 12 months of commencement as announced.
It is good that the government has given local contractors the opportunity to construct the district hospitals because besides them having jobs to do and money to spend in the local economy, more of the works could create employment for some of our youth to ease part of their worries.
However, the Ghanaian Times would not pretend that it does not know the shoddy work some local or Ghanaian contractors do. For instance, some buildings constructed by such contractors develop defects even before they are inaugurated.
The paper can also point to roads across the country which started developing potholes just months after their construction.
This does not happen because Ghanaian contractors lack expertise but because most of them have the penchant or the proclivity to shortchange the state all because there are collaborators in the public system.
Therefore, we urge strict supervision to ensure the Ghanaian excellence the Minister of Information alludes to.
One important issue is that Mr Oppong Nkrumah has called on all Ghanaians to take keen interest in the projects and ensure that they succeed.
The Ghanaian Times wonders how this would be possible under the current situation, where in most cases, contractors are not answerable to the district assemblies in whose jurisdictions such projects are being executed, all because the contracts were awarded in Accra.
There are cases where even assembly members have been snubbed by contractors because they were not involved in anything concerning a certain project, so one cannot imagine how a private citizen, an ordinary member of a community, no matter the level of his or her knowledge or expertise, can go near such projects.
In the circumstance, the papers urges that there must not be even an iota of negligence on the part of any stakeholder who must ensure the success of Agenda 111.
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