{"id":6111,"date":"2014-03-13T19:26:40","date_gmt":"2014-03-13T19:26:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=6111"},"modified":"2014-03-13T19:26:40","modified_gmt":"2014-03-13T19:26:40","slug":"minority-vows-to-halt-fraudulent-306-million-ridge-hospital-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=6111","title":{"rendered":"Minority vows to halt ‘fraudulent’ $306 million Ridge Hospital project"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Osei<\/a>
Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu – Minority Leader<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Minority in Parliament says Ghana will lose $85 million dollars if a commercial agreement between the Government and Bouygues Bartiment International to expand the Ridge Hospital in Accra for $306 million goes ahead.<\/p>\n

Parliament in February approved the agreement, clearing the way for the design, construction, procurement and installation of equipment for the rehabilitation of the hospital to go ahead.<\/p>\n

The deal was first sanctioned by the Parliamentary Sub-committee on Health before being approved by the house.<\/p>\n

However, the Minority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, Thursday suggested on the Floor of Parliament that the deal was approved on the blind side of the minority.<\/p>\n

He said he had been away with the Majority Leader, Mr Benjamin Kunbour, in South Africa when the deal was approved.<\/p>\n

Consequently he told the Speaker, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, that the agreement will have to be brought to the house for re-vetting.<\/p>\n

The MP stressed the the deal was inimical to the national interest and must not be allowed to proceed.<\/p>\n

In a subsequent interview with Accra-based Joy FM, the Minority Leader claimed even government advisers had indicated that the Ridge hospital project could done for less than half the agreed\u00a0 amount.<\/p>\n

He cautioned President John Mahama not to allow the project\u00a0 to go through, saying the deal \u201cis the worst I\u2019ve seen in Parliament\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Mensah-Bonsu emphasised that a deal that will cause the country to lose $85 million was fraudulent and \u201cuntenable\u201d.<\/p>\n

The project is being funded by the Exim Bank and HSBC Bank of the United States of America.<\/p>\n

As part of the refurbishment, Ridge Hospital will be expanded from a 200- to 420-bed capacity hospital, while departments such as Imaging, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Accident and Emergency, Neonatal Intensive Care, Burns, Pharmacy and Laboratory, will be expanded.<\/p>\n

Credit: Graphic Online<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Minority in Parliament says Ghana will lose $85 million dollars if a commercial agreement between the Government and Bouygues Bartiment International to expand the Ridge Hospital in Accra for $306 million goes ahead. Parliament in February approved the agreement, clearing the way for the design, construction, procurement and installation of equipment for the rehabilitation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":5076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[15,43,38],"class_list":["post-6111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-chinese","tag-foresight-medical-center","tag-palaver-newspaper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}