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The Minister of Health, Mr Kwaku Agyeman Manu, yesterday failed to provide specific timelines on when actual work on the La General Hospital Redevelopment Project will commence.

Currently, he said, the contractor was awaiting the issuance of an insurance cover to commence construction but could, however, not say when that could be done.

While responding to an urgent question in Parliament yesterday, Mr Manu said the Finance Minister was engaging the financiers to resolve the issue.

“But since the Ministry of Health does not control that activity, it will be difficult for me to give a very specific timeline,” he said.

The Member of Parliament for La Dadekotopon, Ms Rita Naa Odorley Sowah, therefore, filed a question on the floor to enquire from the minister when actual work would begin.

Context

The President in August 2020 cut the sod for work on the hospital to commence but appearing before Parliament to answer questions on the project from members, the minister said he could not give any timeline as to when actual construction would commence.

The La General Hospital was demolished in March 2020 after a report from the Ghana Health Service indicated that the five-storey structure of the hospital had developed gaping cracks which made the facility unfit for use.

The demolition was to pave way for its reconstruction which is being financed by a credit facility from Standard Chartered Bank of the United Kingdom, with an export credit guarantee from Sinosure of the People’s Republic of China to the tune of €68 million, with an insurance cover of €3.86 million.

However, after over year of its demolition, actual work is yet to begin on the site.

Urgent question

But Mr Manu in his answer to the question said the project had delayed due to a number of reasons.

He explained that while some aspects of the project such as the demolition, fencing, topographical surveying, among other things, had commenced, the actual construction had delayed due to the inability of Sinosure to issue an insurance cover for the project.

He said the contractor of the project had, therefore, decided not to move to site until the insurance cover had been issued.

Mr Manu said the Ministry of Finance was having the necessary engagements and consultations with Sinosure to have the insurance cover issued for the contractor to start work.

“The little problem we have in the ministry is that the contractor is insisting that not until the insurance cover is issued, it cannot move to site,” he said.