By Elsie Appiah-Osei
Accra, June 16, GNA — Mr Kofi Amankwa-Manu, former Defence Minister and former Chairman of the Project Implementation Unit for the Ministry of Defence, has rejected alleged claims by Mr Brogya Genfi, the Deputy Minister for Defence, that currently, the Afari Military Hospital “stood at 60 per cent overall completion, with civil and architectural works at 97 per cent but biomedical and mechanical installations were at only 5 per cent.”
Mr Amankwa-Manu called the claims as “factually inaccurate” and a “calculated attempt to siphon $85m from the public.”
Mr Brogya Genfi allegedly on Thursday, June 11, 2026, posted on Facebook that the government was working “tirelessly to salvage the Afari Military Hospital Project and deliver the hospital to the Ghana Armed Forces and the people of Ashanti.”
The said post reportedly said Deputy Minister indicated that “currently, the hospital stood at 60 per cent overall completion, with civil and architectural works at 97 per cent, but biomedical and mechanical installations were at only 5 per cent.”
However, addressing the Parliamentary Press Corps in Parliament House, in Accra on Tuesday, Mr Amankwa-Manu, also the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Atwima Kwanwoma, dismissed the narrative that the 500-bed facility was “only 60 per cent complete” as a “complete fabrication.”
According to the MP, the official records from the Ministry of Defence’s Project Implementation Unit as of September 2024 indicated that the overall work completion stood at 92.5 per cent.
“Civil works at 97.5 per cent, architectural works 87 per cent, staff housing 77 per cent, roads 80 per cent, landscaping 77 per cent,” he said.
“In January 2025, under the previous NPP administration, overall completion stood at 98 per cent,” he added.
The MP challenged the Deputy Minister’s assertion that contractor Eurojet/Ejvat was demanding 85M USD to return to site, calling it a “manufactured crisis.”
Mr Amankwa-Manu noted that the original contract sum of 180M USD had been fully paid.
He said: “Additional 19.3M USD for delays caused by relocation under the previous National Democratic Congress (NDC) government has also been fully paid by the Government of Ghana.
“A subsequent 3M USD claim, negotiated down from 6.5M USD, had 2.5M USD paid. The outstanding balance is 500,000 USD, not 85M USD. The jump from 500,000 USD to 85M USD is not just mathematically absurd, it is criminal.”
The MP traced the project’s delays to the NDC’s tenure.
He said originally contracted in 2008 under President John Agyekum Kufuor for Kumasi; the project was relocated by the NDC from 2009.
“First to Tamale, then to Afari. This caused a six-year delay and led to a contractor claim of 36M USD, later negotiated to 19.3M USD,” he said
He added: “As at December 2016 when the NDC left office, the project stood at only 40 per cent complete after eight years in power, despite physical construction starting in 2014.”
The MP, also the Deputy Ranking Member of Parliament’s Defence and Interior Committee and former Chairman of the Ministry’s project implementation unit for the Afari Military Hospital from 2021-2024, who spoke on behalf of the Minority Caucus in Parliament said he was allegedly “exposing this grand scheme of deception” and clarify the true status of the Afari Hospital project.
GNA
Edited by Benjamin Mensah
Reporter: Elsie Appiah-OseiÂ
Reporter’s email: [email protected]