Agenda 111: “When you said cadastral plan for 91 sites was ready, was the sites in the sky?” – NDC Beatrice Annan slams gov’t

Member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC)’s communication team, Lawyer Beatrice Annan has taking a swipe at the government over its seeming excuses over its inability to deliver to Ghanaians it promises of constructing 111 hospitals across the country.

Speaking on TV3 NewDay on Thursday, January 26, monitored by GhanaPlus.com she said government’s excuses about challenges with land acquisition is just a post facto rationalization just to cover its inability to fulfill the promise he made in the wake of the country’s COVID-19 crises.

Ms Annan said government already made known in the 2022 budget that cadastral plans for 91 sites for the project were ready hence it can’t be so that government is having challenges with land acquisition.

She question if that be so then was the said 91sites which was ready then in the skies.

“Bella, they have made the point that the challenge with agenda 111 is varied and the first one has to do with land acquisition. That are lies, these are post facto rationalization because the government could not achieve its purpose,” Ms Annan said

“In 2022, when the government was presenting the budget to Ghanaians, specifically at paragraph 1012, I think that when they put at in paragraph 1012, many people will not read.  At paragraph 1012, they told us that they have they have identified lands for 91 sites and in fact even Cadastral plans for these 91 sites were ready then in 2023 budget at paragraph 408, you come to tell us that you are struggling with land acquisition and documentation, topography, and whatever so in 2022 when you said that Cadastral plans were ready over 91 sites, were those sites in the skies?,” she  mentioned.

Ms Annan lamented the government does not take Ghanaians seriously and that explains the justification of its inabilities as far as the agenda 111 is concerned.

“I mean, the NPP government should take us serious. And you if you look at the amount of many they have sank into this project and they have left it in the state as we are watching on the television. Am just sad,” she said.

Agenda 111 project

Agenda 111, a hospital projects to address the infrastructural challenges facing the country’s health care sector was announced to commence on Tuesday, about a year ago after a sod cutting ceremony by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo.

The project, would see to the design, procurement, construction, equipping and commissioning of 101 District Hospitals, 6 Regional Hospitals in newly created regions, as well as 1 Regional Hospital in the Western Region, 2 Psychiatric Hospitals in Kumasi and Tamale and a redeveloped Accra Psychiatric Hospital.

When completed, the hospitals would host state of the art surgical theaters for maternity, obstetrics and gynecology, a full complement of male, female, pediatric and isolation wards, among others.

Akufo-Addo hospitals: 91 sites ready

Government in its 2022 Budget Statement to Parliament said under health infrastructure, paragraph (1012) that “Mr. Speaker, the Ministry will accelerate the implementation of the Agenda 111 Project comprising 101 district hospitals, seven regional hospitals and three psychiatric hospitals. Cadastral plans for 91 district hospital sites are ready”.

Many of the project initially scheduled to be completed in a year and revised to the completion of the President tenure have stalled.

But government in paragraph 408 of its 2023 Budget Statement and Economic Policy to Parliament said “The Agenda 111 project implementation experienced some challenges, notable among which include; land acquisition and documentation, and limited site suitability (size and topography) in some selected districts particularly in urban areas, necessitating the re-design of the hospitals. Work is steadily progressing according to revised work plans for the various affected sites to deliver the hospitals”.

Source: GhanaPlus.com