The Minority in Parliament has called on the Ministry of Health (MoH) to immediately open the 120-bed Weija Paediatric Hospital to allow access to professional paediatric healthcare. 

According to the Caucus, the contractor went through the requisite procurement process, bought and fixed all the equipment the hospital needed to be fully operational. 

If the procurement processes were approved by the Public Procurement Authority which the World Bank, the sponsors of the $10.15 million project, also knew about, so, this flimsy excuse of over-priced or mis-procurement should not be used now as it is totally needless,” the Ranking Member on the Health Committee of Parliament, Dr Nana Ayew Afriyie, at a press in Parliament over the delayed operationalisation of the hospital, 

He said the Ministry of Health should have done its due diligence in verifying the issues of overpricing and procurement breaches.

Due diligence 

“It is no news to bring to overpricing to the public. If you have been set up, then the World Bank has set you up. Now, they have issued a statement ahead of you (MoH) that open the hospital and nobody is talking about the mis-procurement now,” he said.

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Procurement breaches not true

Dr Afriyie said it was the considerate position of the Minority that the Weija Children’s Hospital must be opened now as there is no further reason for delays in operating the hospital.

He said that was especially at a time when many unemployed youth, nurses and the laboratory physicians in the system were in desperate need for hospital.

He, therefore, expressed concern over the position the government had taken that the previous administration was involved in procurement breaches, resulting in the delayed opening of the hospital. 

That, he said, was not true as the Weija Hospital originally was a 40-bedded facility but was upgraded into a 120-bed facility.

He said a couple of equipment were also added on to the project enhance it. 

Legacy project

He explained that it was a New Patriotic Party government initiative because it was post-COVID allocation from World Bank and the then chose to have a legacy from COVID.

As a legacy project for how COVID-19 impacted the country, he said the NPP government chose to establish a befitting children's hospital for the southern sector in Weija.

At every stage of the construction process for the hospital, he said the World Bank was aware that the project had to be enhanced from a 40-bedded to a 120-bedded facility. 

Faced with difficulty of getting adequate equipment for the facility, Dr Afriyie stakeholders approved that the government procured equipment for the hospital at each stage to enhance the project.

With the World Bank put in the known of the procurement processes, he said the acquisition of equipment such as CT scan which was highly priced all went through the procurement processes. 

“So, if you attack procurement which has gone through Public Procurement Authority (PPA) approved and the Ministry of Health has a contract with a contractor, and you have issues with procurement, then you are more or less attacking the PPA of this country.

“It has gotten nothing to do with the contractor,” he said, accusing the Ministry of Health of failing to come up with alternative invoice or quotations of prices for equipment including CT scan overtime. 

“The $3.8 million include the CT scan and you say it is overpriced.

“Overpriced is not supposed to be verbal and so bring evidence to back it and in worst case scenario, the government would have to take care of it,” he said.