Health Minister Kwaku Agyeman-Manu has attributed the delay in the completion of some health infrastructural projects in Ghana, to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr Agyeman-Manu’s statement follows former President John Mahama’s claims that the Akufo-Addo-led government has abandoned projects he started while in office.
The lack of continuity of projects, according to Mr John Mahama, has left the unfinished projects in a deplorable state.
“No reasonable Ghanaian can feel happy when taxpayer funds are put into projects and they are not ready to be used for the benefit and use of projects just because the government changed and, so, the projects are left standing without being completed,” the 2020 flagbearer for the main opposition party National Democratic Congress (NDC) said on Bolgatanga-based URA Radio, as part of his Thank You tour on Tuesday, 17 August 2021.
But Mr Agyeman-Manu told the media at the Meet the Press series on Wednesday, 18 August 2021, that: “I’m proud to stand before you to say that since I joined the ministry, no project has been abandoned”.
He noted: “Last year, we did a lot of sod-cutting on some projects. We’re being asked questions as to why these projects have not started or been completed”.
He explained that the European contractors for the projects were supposed to have begun soon after the sod-cutting ceremonies but the impact of COVID-19, such as the second wave in Europe, flight restrictions and quarantining among other setbacks, hindered the arrival of European contractors assigned to take up some of the projects.
“Let me state that it looks like very soon, very quickly, all of us, Ghanaians, are forgetting about the fact that the world was hit by a pandemic, which disrupted normal economic activities,” he said.
He further outlined some achievements chalked ever since his appointment as Health Minister and hinted at an infrastructural tour in the coming days “to show Ghanaians what is actually on the sites we’re talking about”.