Agenda 111: Minister of Health attributes delay to low capacity of local contractors, challenges in accessing lands

The Minister of Health, Dr. Benard Okoe-Boye, has said that some of the local contractors who were engaged for the Agenda 111 project could not undertake the project, a situation that led to the change in timelines for the completion of the project.

He made this known, when he appeared before the Parliamentary Committee on Government Assurances on Thursday, August 1, 2024, as reported by 3news.com.

He said the government decided to rely solely on indigenous contractors for the project because the initiative was locally funded.

“It was realised that some of the contractors did not have the capacity to undertake the construction, hence the decision to change them,” he noted.

Dr Okoe-Boye said limited access to lands in urban communities also contributed to the delay in completing the project.

“In certain places, even towns were fighting over which town we decide to host Agenda 111. If we don’t resolve these things and rush you can get a backlash so land issues are the first thing that accounted for the change in the timelines.

"Most communities are urbanized, even finding the minimum of three or four acres for Agenda 111 was a problem. So, Accra for example, most places that are part of Agenda 111 don’t have the same design of a very smooth flow.

“The second has to do with the fact that Agenda 111 is a programme that tolerates or entertains largely or only Ghanaian contractors. The president was very emphatic, if you check most of the projects done over the years in the Fourth Republic in the health sector, the contractors were foreign contractors and most of the time it so happened with the facility, the country that gives the facility has a way of making sure that the contractors are from their country”, he noted.

In August 2021, President Akufo-Addo cut sod in the Ashanti Region to signal the start of the project During the event, he stated that the project would be completed would be completed within 18 months.

However, with less than six months to end the year, the projects have not been completed.

JKB/OGB

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