The Minister for Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has disclosed that the government has uncovered an overpayment on the contract for the Sewua Government Hospital project, prompting an audit before any further action is taken.

Mr Akandoh made the disclosure when he appeared before Parliament's Assurances Committee on Tuesday, July 8.

He explained that the current administration inherited a project that lacked essential infrastructure, including water, electricity, and an access road, despite public perceptions that it was ready for use.

“We inherited Sewua. We had no water, no access road, and no electricity connected to the place,” he said.

The minister stressed that any payment exceeding the contract sum approved by Parliament required parliamentary approval, revealing that the government had identified payments made beyond the approved contract value.

“The truth of the matter is that this facility came to Parliament for approval, and you are a senior Member of Parliament,” he told the Committee Chairman.

“If you are going to pay anything over and above the contract sum as approved, it must come back to Parliament.”

“The Chairman, as I speak to you now, and that's why we are very careful; we have detected that there's some amount of money that has been paid over and above the contract sum that Parliament approved.”

Mr Akandoh said the dispute between the contractor and the government had made it difficult even to jointly assess the project's progress.

“As I speak to you now, for us to even go back with the contractor to assess the progress so far has also become a problem,” he said.

He rejected claims that the government was refusing to operationalise a completed health facility, insisting that the situation was more complex than portrayed.

“When the picture or the impression is created out there that you have inherited something that is completed and you don't want to operationalise it, Mr Chairman, if anybody knows the truth, it is you. You know that the perception out there is entirely wrong.”

The minister said the Ministry of Health was fully prepared to deploy health personnel immediately once the project was officially handed over.

“It isn't everything that we can put out there,” he said. “If this project is handed over to us today, I can assure you within the next two days, we can have the full complement of health professionals to operationalise it.”

He maintained that the unresolved contractual issues remained the biggest obstacle to opening the facility.

“So there's an issue between the contractor and government that we have not been able to resolve. How do you operationalise a project when you are in that situation?” he asked.

The Chairman of the Assurances Committee and Member of Parliament for Bimbilla, Dominic Aduna Bingab Nitiwul, acknowledged the challenges surrounding the project and urged the government to complete the audit before taking any further decisions.

Mr Nitiwul said he had anticipated the difficulties because of his previous dealings with the contractor.

He cautioned against politicising major public infrastructure projects, warning that doing so could significantly delay their completion.

“What I would advise Ghanaians is that if we have to complete those projects, we have to stop politicising them.”

“Otherwise, these projects will never be completed in the next 10 years. When a contractor believes that these projects have become political, he will squeeze you and collect money that is not supposed to be given to him. Take it from me.”

Mr Nitiwul traced the history of the hospital project, noting that it first received parliamentary approval in November 2008 during the administration of former President John Agyekum Kufuor but did not commence until 2014 under the late President John Evans Atta Mills' administration, with implementation continuing under President John Dramani Mahama.

He said successive governments had advanced the project, but funding constraints and contractual disagreements had prevented its completion.

He urged the Ministry to ensure that the audit was conducted thoroughly before any additional payments were considered.