Project overpricing: AfDB contractor vindicates Bawumia

The Contractor of the Ofankor Hospital that remains shut for more than a year, has corroborated Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s assertion that the facility was constructed at a cost of GhS5.7 million.

Barima Kwaku Ameyaw, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Georgeland Ventures Limited, contractors of the facility told the media the total cost of the facility stood at $1.3 million as indicated by the Vice President.

According to him, the components of the facility include an admin block, OPD, adjunct clinical services unit, maternity block, operations and gynecology, 50KVA standby generator, 19-street lighting, a wall and security post as well as 32,000 liters water storage system or the equivalent of 3 boreholes.

Ameyaw said he is pained that the facility is not being put to use particularly when the population of Ofankor as of 2010 stood at 489, 000, according to the Ghana Statistical Service.

The situation, he explained, is putting pressure on the Amasaman Hospital and he is therefore appealing to the Minister for Health and the vice president to help equip the hospital to enable it to commence operations to serve the people of the area.

Dr Bawumia while peaking at the ‘Value for Money’ conference in Accra, revealed that “at a recent meeting of the Economic Management Team (EMT), it emerged that Ghana constructs 60-80 bed district hospitals for $25 million and I said “Ebeii!”

He wondered how the African Development Bank could construct a 150-bed hospital in Accra for about GH¢5.76 million or $1.3 million without equipment, saying “even when they decide to equip the said hospital for some $1 million, the total cost cannot get to more than $3 million.”

“So how come we are building district hospitals for $25 million, a figure which even excludes the tax exemptions granted on equipment imported for the hospitals?” he asked.