Dr Richard Fiadomor, the president of the Chamber of Local Government, has bemoaned the continuous delay in the release of the common fund for metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) across the country.
Speaking to Kojo Mensah on The Asaase Breakfast Show on Monday (11 October), Fiadomor alleged the common fund has been diverted into the Agenda 111 project.
“…We think that this whole thing is deliberate and there is another issue, when we talk they say we shouldn’t say, the second point is that the common fund is just not available for this year.
“It is one of the reasons why the appointment of metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs) delayed because now the year is about to end and 2021 common fund has not been released,” he said.
Fiadomor added: “The last time government released common fund was the third quarter of 2020, 2021 has been diverted into Agenda 111.”
Agenda 111
President Akufo-Addo’s flagship agenda to build 111 hospitals across the country took off on Tuesday 17 August 2021. Following the novel coronavirus/COVID-19 outbreak in March 2020, the Akufo-Addo government took heed of the severity of the pandemic’s impact on the many districts in Ghana which do not have a hospital.
To bridge the gap, the government announced that it had decided to build hospitals in the left-out districts. In seeking to fulfil its promise to the nation and people of Ghana at this moment in our history, the government is taking a bold step. By building these hospitals, it will start to correct what has been a long-standing anomaly in distribution of health infrastructure across the country.
The 111 hospitals are a major infrastructure intervention. And when complete, the programme will fulfil the government’s policy of maintaining at least one hospital for each district and region. It will also improve geographical health-care coverage and access to health care for all Ghanaians, wherever they reside in Ghana, and transform health-care delivery in our local communities.
Scope of the project
The Ministry of Health says the Agenda 111 project will cover the following deliverables: design, procurement, construction, equipping and commissioning of 101 district hospitals, six regional hospitals in the newly created regions (Bono, Bono East, North East, Oti, Savannah and Western North), as well as one new regional hospital in the Western Region, two psychiatric hospitals (Kumasi and Tamale) and redevelopment of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital.
The Western Region will also benefit from rehabilitation of Effia Nkwanta Hospital. All of the hospitals are expected to have a complement of staff accommodation for doctors, nurses and other health workers.
Fred Dzakpata
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