By Elsie Appiah-Osei
Accra, Nov 07, GNA – Mr Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, the Minister for Health, says the government has concluded negotiations, identified new funding and is in the process of advancing negotiations for contractors to re-mobilise to the La General Hospital site to begin work.
He said on Tuesday when he responded to Members of Parliament’s (MPs) concerns about the delayed work on the Project.
The La General Hospital was demolished in July 2020 after the hospital’s administration reported severe structural problems.
As a result, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo cut the sod for the commencement of construction of the Hospital Redevelopment Project on August 10, 2020, but work has yet to start.
Mr Agyemang-Manu said: “And so very soon the project will come back to life. I can give more details about this sometime next week when we have concluded everything. Thank you, Mr Speaker.”
Meanwhile, presiding over Tuesday’s Proceedings, Mr Joseph Osei-Owusu, the First Deputy Speaker, directed the health Minister to brief the House on the State of the La General Hospital.
In a related development, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the Majority Leader has attributed the delay in the reconstruction of the La General Hospital to the withholding of funds by the sponsors of the facility.
According to Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the sponsors withheld the funds after Ghana entered an engagement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“Mr Speaker, what has happened is that after the engagement with the IMF, funding from those sources that Parliament approved of the funding has been withheld by the sponsors,” he said on Tuesday on the floor of Parliament.
“…Mr Speaker, until the nation is given a clean bill of health by the IMF, it is going to be difficult for the funding to be released. This is why the government now wants to situate it within the context of Agenda 111, and that will mean that the facility will have to be scaled down a bit,” the Majority Leader added.
Some MPs called for the government’s commencement of work on the La General Hospital in the upcoming budget presentation by allocating a budget towards the Project.
GNA