In what appears to be a panic reaction, authorities at the Ho Municipal Assembly have released an amount of GHc5,000 meant for the refurbishment of a Community-Based Health Planning and Service (CHPS) compound, sited within the Kpenoe Traditional Area in the Volta Region.
This was after the community members through their chief, Togbe Kotoku XI, petitioned the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) alleging that the Assembly had misappropriated monies donated to the community for refurbishment of the CHPS compound.
In the petition, the Chief alleged that the Ho Municipal Assembly received an amount of GHc5,000 from GOIL Ghana Limited on their behalf in response to an appeal to benevolent organisations to help the community stock the health facility with medical equipment because it lacked such facilities when it was handed over to them.
Togbe Kotoku said although their appeal for support received positive feedback from well-wishers, including Amenyo Foundation, that of GOIL which was donated through the Assembly in August 2016, has since not reached the community.
Togbe Kotoku said after several failed attempts to redeem the cheque from the Assembly for the intended purpose proved futile, the traditional authority was compelled to resort to EOCO to investigate the whereabouts of the money.
“In 2016, we were notified that our appeal has yielded GHc5000, but the process of accessing it became a problem. I detailed the Assembly member to follow up and go to the Assembly on several occasions; and it is like our attempts were futile.”
Interestingly, Togbe told Citi News in interview that the Municipal Assembly immediately released the cheque; “on the third day the petition was sent” although EOCO was yet to commence investigations into the matter.
He said although the money has been released, he would still like the investigative body to find out why the Asembly delayed before releasing the said amount.
“When we petitioned EOCO, we sent a copy to the Assembly on Friday, and on Monday the Assembly released the cheque; a panic reaction which still beats our imagination because we needed the money. We took it but then we want EOCO to get to the bottom of the issue to investigate so that the truth would come out,” he added in the interview.
Precious Deletsa, a midwife at the facility who was outwardly excited at the time the news team visited the facility said the release of the money would help them procure essential items the facility lacked.
Abandoned health facilities
Citi FM has in the last few weeks turned the heat on government for abandoning some already completed health facilities in the country.
Some of them including the Bank of Ghana hospital as well as the University of Ghana Medical Centre although largely completed are yet to be made operational.
Others are CHPS compounds int various parts of the country which have also not been put to use due to lack of medical facilities.
Over 5 CHPS compound abandoned for lack of electricity
The Member of Parliament for the area, Rockson Dafeamekpor in a recent Citi News interview complained that over five CHPS compounds in his constituency have not been operational because they lacked social amenities such as water and electricity.
“Within the past six years, we constructed about 7 of them. The difficulty is that, when these compounds are completed you need to extend electricity and water, but the cost of extending these utility services are not factored in the actual construction, and that is the challenge.”
“Now we are being levied a huge cost to extend electricity and water, and because of the inadequacy of funding from the Assembly, this is the challenge for the Assembly and we are making efforts to operationalize the facility at both Kpeve and Pekiwudome,” the MP added when he spoke on the Citi Breakfast Show on January 26, 2018.
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By: King Norbert Akpablie/citifmonline.com/Ghana