Majority Leader calls for probe into undelivered 200 ambulances

The Majority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has called for the conduct of forensic audit into the 200 ambulances worth €15 million that were to be procured in 2014, but out of which only 30 were delivered.

According to him, the Ministry of Health had revealed that the money for the remaining 170 ambulances that were not procured was not in their books.

“So where do we have it? This should be helping all of us, if the money is in abeyance then it could be used to procure additional ambulances.”

Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu made the call when he rounded up the contribution on President Akufo-Addo’s Message on the State of the Nation (MOSON) on the floor of the House.

Debate on the President’s Message on the State of the Nation started on Tuesday 25, 2020 with the motion moved by Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, MP for Ofoase-Ayirebi and Minister for Information and seconded by Dr Mark Asibey-Yeboah, Chairman of the Committee on Finance.

The Minority Members of Parliament (MPs) had decided to abstain from the debate on the MOSON in line with their previous walkout.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu also explained that even the 30 that arrived were not fit for purpose because the interior upholstery did not bear any medical facilities

He stated that contrary to the NDC’s government failure to acquire ambulances to augment existing fleet of the Ghana Ambulance Service, the NPP administration on the other hand were able to acquire 307 ambulances which were sent to various stations and were working to save lives.

He said most of the health structures that the current administration met were started by the previous administration, but were completed and commissioned.

He cited some of the health facilities in the Greater Accra region in Ogbojo, Ashaiman, Sege, Oduman and Bortianor and those in the Central Region including; Akumfude, Ekumfi-Nakwa, Mankron, Gyamera, Biriwa, Benponagya, Etsin Sunkwa, Bisease, Gomoa Dawurampong and Gomoa Potsin.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu also announced that government had settled the arears of the Health Insurance, which was indebted up to the tune of GH1.2 billion as at April-May 2019.

He said the government was mobilizing to pay for claims that were in arears for six months, but denied statements that the claims were in arears for one year.

He said the increasing confidence that people had in the NHIS had increased from 10.6 million in 2016 to 12.3 million at the end of 2019.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu also touted the NPP government’s achievement in the area of the economy, such as the GDP growth, inflation, interest rates, International Reserves, Consumer and Business Confidence, relative Exchange Rate Stability, payments of the accumulated arrears in statutory obligations, the clean-up of the Banking Sector, Upward Adjustment in the country’s Credit ratings among others.

He said the empirical evidence showed that the country’s economy under President Akufo-Addo and his economic management team headed by Dr Mahamudu Bawumia was experiencing a huge turn around.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu stated that from a lowly 0.9 percent growth in Agriculture in 2016, the government’s grand-breaking Planting for Food and Jobs, Planting for Export, Planting for Rural Development improved production efficiency, food security, profitability for the farmers, job creation and export and established a base for industrialisation.

He said the yields in cereals and legumes, vegetables, maize, rice, soya beans, plantain, cassava cocoyam and yam increased and improved the living conditions of farmers.