Former Municipal Chief Executive for Obuasi Municipal, Richard Agyemang Boadi, popularly known as King Zuba has criticized President Akufo-Addo for abandoning the 500-bed maternity block at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi.
According to him, he does not understand why a President who demolished a 1500-bed capacity facility initiated by Kutu Acheampong would decide to construct only a 500-bed unit and then leave it unfinished.
In an interview with Kojo Marfo on AbusuaNkommo, he questioned, “You informed us that you were replacing the 1500-bed facility with a new 500-bed one for the people of the Ashanti Region, yet today it remains unfinished like Acheampong’s project. Is this not an act of wickedness?”
He demanded that the Akufo-Addo government account for the project after assuring the people of the Ashanti Region that they had secured funding for the project.
He remarked, “They informed us that they had obtained funding from the UK government to construct the 500-bed facility, so why abandon it?”
Earlier, the Ashanti Regional Minister, Hon Simon Osei Mensah, explained in an interview with Kojo Marfo that the delay in completing the Komfo Anokye Maternity block was due to the Domestic Debt Exchange.
The Minister confirmed that the project is a priority, and funds have been disbursed to the contractor for its completion, but he could not guarantee that the project would be finished by December.
Background:
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Friday, May 15, 2020, cut the sod for the reactivation of construction works on the abandoned 44-year-old Maternity and Children’s Block of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi.
The project, which is being funded by German Bank, Deutsche Bank, will cost €155 million and is expected to be completed within 36 months, with the construction being undertaken by Contracta.
President Akufo-Addo stated that once completed, the Maternity and Children’s Block will be a state-of-the-art, modern health edifice, with pediatrics, gynecology, and obstetrics units.
“It will serve as a referral center for twelve (12) of the sixteen (16) regions of our country. It will be a seven hundred and fifty (750)-bed building, with outpatient areas for adults and children, and it will have ten (10) operating theatres and diagnostic rooms, fully equipped with X-ray, ultrasound, and mammography facilities,” he said.
Approximately 6 months are expected to be used to demolish what the contractor has said is a weak-looking Mother and Baby Unit (MBU) facility at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi.
The storey building project had virtually been neglected by successive governments since it was started 45 years ago, thereby rendering the pillars weak, and the contractor has said it could collapse if the entire structure was not pulled down for the main project.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Kwadwo Owusu
