Procurement of 307 ambulances cost government $54.3 million - Hawa Koomson

Government spent $177,000 to procure each of the 307 ambulances under the One-Constituency, One-Ambulance programme, amounting to a total of $54,339,000.

The procurement processes involved production, distribution and insurance cover on the ambulances.

Madam Mavis Hawa Koomson, the Minister-designate for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, made the disclosure during her vetting by the Parliament's Appointments Committee, on Thursday.

The Minister-designate was the former Minister in charge of Special Initiatives in the first term of the Akufo-Addo-led government, under whose watch the ambulances were procured.

She said the ambulances were Mercedes Benz brand and that all the six contractors who won the bid received dealer authorisation permits from the Public Procurement Authority in compliance with the country's procurement laws.

With regard to the number of dams completed under One-Village,One-Dam, she said, out of the 560 dams targeted, 471 were constructed with 427 fully active and providing all-year round water to farmers in the five regions in the north.

Also, 50 district warehouses were targeted for construction to store grains and cocoa beans out of which 42 were fully completed, while eight were between 80 and 90 per cent completed.

She said each warehouse could store up to 1,000 metric tonnes of grains and were constructed in collaboration with the ministries of Food and Agriculture, Ghana Buffer Stock Company Limited and Special Initiatives.

Madam Hawa Koomson, also the Member of Parliament for Awutu Senya East in the Central Region, apologised for shooting a gun during the voter registration exercise on July 20, last year.

The incident generated a lot of public outcry and condemnation from a cross section of Ghanaians.

The issue is still under Police investigations.

However, Madam Hawa Koomson insisted that nobody got injured since she fired the warning shots into the atmosphere.

The Minister-designate answered questions regarding policies to ensure tax waivers on fish feeds, plans to ending invasion of Chinese trawlers on the country's territorial waters for illegal fishing, trans-shipment (Saiko), and increasing the tonnes of fish produced locally, among others. GNA