1 district, 1 ambulance: 307 ambulances to be delivered in September - Hawa Koomson

Minister for Special Development Initiatives, Mavis Hawa Koomson, has said that 307 ambulances will be shipped into the country by the second week in September to help emergency services within health sectors, ABC News can report.

According to her, procurement processes have begun with the final pre-shipping inspection to be done on July 25th before the first batch of ambulances will be brought into the country.

“We have started with the procurement process and as I’m speaking now, as at last month June, we went to Turkey to do our phototype inspection and corrected every mistake. If God permits, on July 25th, the pre-shipping inspection will also come on so that by second week of September, the first batch of ambulances will be in Ghana,” she said in an interview monitored by ABC News.

“Initially, we were shipping 4 by 4 and 2 by 4 but we realised that we can’t convert the Euro 6 to get the 4 by 4 that we want and the fuel consumption too will be very high so we spoke with the ambulance service personnel and then they said that they prefer the 2 by 4 than the 4 by 4?, she added.

On the government’s flagship 1 village, 1 dam project, Hawa Koomson reiterated earlier claims that contractors who engage in shoddy work, as regards the construction of dams in the selected villages for the project, will not be paid.

"It’s not the case that the contractors didn’t do the work well. They were still doing the work but couldn’t fix the spillway before the heavy downpour started and since then, the contractor has moved back to continue the work. If the contractors do not do their work well, they will not be paid that is why we didn’t give out mobilisation, you will use your own money to do the work so if you do a shoddy work, I won’t pay you,” she said.

“I also promised that if there are any issues, we will rectify because we are working for people. We said 1 village,1 Dam and if you are fixing a dam in a village, it should be able to be of benefit to the whole community so we are not fixing a Bui pipe, we are doing what can be of benefit for everyone so that in the dry season, their animals wouldn’t go far for people to steal,” she added.