The Minister-designate for Health, Dr. Bernard Okoe-Boye, has revealed to the media that the delay in the completion of selected health facilities, particularly the Tema General Hospital, is due to the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) with external creditors.
President Akufo-Addo cut the budget for the project to commence in 2020 to replace the existing Tema General Hospital at a cost of €92.7 million.
However, the project stalled, and in explaining why the project stalled, the Minister attributed it to the DDEP.
Speaking during an inspection tour of the facility, Dr. Okoe-Boye said the project and other projects would be completed once the negotiations were over.
“But for the debt exchange programmes, all these are not fathomed or imaginary projects. These are projects that have been worked on in terms of contracting, facility arrangements, and even work that has begun on some of the sites. Like you mentioned, at Dormaa, we are going there. We don’t want to know of projects from a distance; we want you to be part of the journey.”
“The Ministry of Finance is working hard to complete this debt exchange programme so that creditors can start disbursing for projects like this to be reactivated.”
“We are going to work hard to make sure that we resolve these challenges.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
