Private individuals behind Heal Komfo Anokye project refuse to account or hand over to KATH - Reports

A major fundraising initiative launched by the Asantehene to rehabilitate the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi is now engulfed in a dispute over ownership, governance, and accountability.

The Heal Komfo Anokye Project (HeKAP) was launched in November 2023 with the goal of raising $10 million to fix decades-old, dilapidated infrastructure at the hospital.

More than two years later, tens of millions of Ghana cedis have been raised from state institutions, private companies, Members of Parliament, government ministers, the then Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, individuals, religious bodies, and other groups.

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Approximately GH¢50 million of the funds raised has been spent, while around GH¢13 million remains outstanding to contractors. The HeKAP committee has said it is yet to validate this debt.

When the KATH board and management demanded accountability and sought to take over the project, the HeKAP chairman told them they lacked the authority to make such demands.

Months of investigation, supported by findings from an audit of the project, have uncovered serious irregularities that risk eroding donors’ trust and confidence.

The issues include procurement lapses, missing pages in donors’ receipt books, and a dispute over ownership of the project. Some individuals describe it as their private initiative rather than an official KATH project.

Donations to HeKAP and project implementation are managed by the Heal Komfo Anokye Hospital Foundation (HeKAF).

According to records at the Registrar of Companies, the directors are Samuel Adu Boakye, a journalist with Kumasi-based Kessben FM, and Kojo Darko Asante, a chief architect at the Public Works Department in the Ashanti Region.

Neither the two directors nor the company has a formal link to Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, nor were they authorised by the hospital’s board or management to run the project or receive donations on its behalf.

Auditors noted that they saw “no Memorandum of Understanding between Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and Heal Komfo Anokye Project.” In the absence of such an agreement, “the legal and operational activities and structure of HeKAP remained unclear” and the “ownership of properties and exchange of sensitive information could not be controlled.”

According to a report by investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni, Samuel Adu Boakye said Professor Addai-Mensah, the KATH CEO at the time of registration, told him he was unaware that HeKAP had been registered as a private company. He claimed the professor later became angry upon learning of it.

“At some point, he was even angry, [and asked], how did I register this thing and didn’t tell him? I said, ‘Look, you’re the CEO of Komfo Anokye, and I am the chairman of Heal Komfo Anokye. How do I come and tell you to be part of it?’ That would amount to something else,” he said.

However, auditors recorded Professor Addai-Mensah as a signatory to HeKAP’s bank accounts. A resolution to open an account at Prudential Bank’s Santasi Roundabout branch in Kumasi was dated February 6, 2024, though authorisations for other accounts were not provided.

The signatories, according to Manasseh, to the accounts were as follows:

The Heal Komfo Anokye Hospital Foundation was incorporated on March 25, 2024 — four months after the project’s official launch on November 10, 2023 — as a private company limited by guarantee. Its stated object is “raising funds to support Okomfo Anokye Hospital.”

Despite this, bank accounts in the name of HeKAP were advertised for donations shortly after the launch. On November 13, 2023, the official Heal Komfo Anokye Facebook page posted a flyer displaying bank details.

Manasseh also added that, in his interview with Professor Addai-Mensah, he said donations were initially held at Fidelity Bank before the company was registered and attributed the arrangement to the need to avoid the lengthy processes required under the Public Procurement Act and the Public Financial Management Act.

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"We won’t account or hand over to KATH"

In July 2025, the KATH board wrote to HeKAP managers demanding accountability and handover of the project to the hospital’s CEO. In a response dated July 8, 2025, Samuel Adu Boakye stated that “the Heal Komfo Anokye Project (HeKAP) was launched and is being implemented by the Heal Komfo Anokye Hospital Foundation, a private corporate entity with the active support of the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.”

He emphasised that “HeKAP has never been a KATH-initiated project, even though KATH is the beneficiary of its activities, and that KATH, as an institution or through any of its officers, has never been part of the corporate entity.”

“The HeKAP committee has never been a committee of KATH set up by the management and/or the Board of Directors,” Adu Boakye is quoted as saying.

A request for comment from Manhyia Palace regarding the Asantehene’s awareness of the private registration has not yet been answered, as the Asantehene is currently abroad.

Sources close to the palace say Otumfuo requested an audit of the project, which was submitted three weeks ago.

He is expected to meet the HeKAP committee and stakeholders upon his return to discuss the findings and chart the way forward.



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