Yieleh Chireh said he does not see any sense of urgency in the work of the Health Minister, adding that the Minister also seems not to be consulting professionals in his sector before taking major decisions leading to the numerous challenges facing the sector.

“…It doesn’t appear as if he is consulting, it doesn’t appear as if he is listening and he is too slow for the health sector in terms of what should have been done,” the Ranking Member added.

Yieleh Chireh, who is also the Member of Parliament for Wa West in the Upper West Region on the ticket of the opposition National Democratic Congress, made the observation in a Citi News interview on Tuesday in connection with the number of completed health projects that have been abandoned across the country.

Abandoned completed health projects

Citi News has in the last few days exposed a number of health projects undertaken by successive governments which cost the taxpayer several millions of dollars, but have been abandoned.

The major ones that have come up for mention are the $217 million University of Ghana Medical Centre, the Bank of  Ghana Hospital, the solar-powered medical centre at the Volo Digital Village in the Volta Region, as well as the GHc320,000 CHPS compound at Teshie which are all not in use.

With the University of Ghana Medical Centre, although the first phase has been completed, there is a tussle between the University of Ghana and the Health Ministry, as to who to manage the facility, with government saying it needs an additional $6 million to make it operational.

With regards to the Bank of Ghana Hospital, the Board is yet to take a decision on what module of management to adopt, although the facility was built in three years and largely completed in 2017.

In the case of the Volo Medical Centre, health professionals are unwilling to work there due to the lack of staff accommodation as well as the location of the facility.

Stop doing politics

Yieleh Chiereh in the interview with Citi News’ Parliamentary correspondent, Duke Mensah Opoku, further accused the Heath Minister of politicizing the issues in the health sector, hence their difficulty in addressing them.

“I have restrained myself from condemning people from the beginning; less than one year, but after one year there is no excuse at all. If you listen to the Minister of Health, he just didn’t want to take a decision to give credence to what has been done by the previous government. So when you politicize health then we have a problem.”

“Everything he has said is always political and it is not good for the country. He should engage and listen to the advice of this technical people – he is not a health person, he is an accountant and everybody will respect him if he does that,” Yieleh Chireh added.

We’ll summon officials over ‘abandoned’ health facilities

On the abandoned health projects, the ranking member hinted of moves to haul before Parliament heads of sector agencies that undertook various health projects, completed them, but have not opened them to the public.

Yieleh Chireh said his Committee will surely enquire from the sector departments the reason why these facilities are not in use.

“I have the duty to invite them to parliament; the committee will work on all these things. The controversies you have heard, the committee would have to call the various heads of departments to appear before the committee to find out what is the real issue,” he added.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Health Minister ‘too slow’ – Yieleh Chireh appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to the Ranking Member on the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, Adam Mutawakilu, the NPP had been elected on the back of repeated promises to scrap ‘nuisance taxes’ imposed by the previous government, thereby reducing the cost of fuel for the ordinary Ghanaian.

[contextly_sidebar id=”ALwiYxx9zDTyzoVE1IY2h8sQYyv7N3MH”]Fuel prices hit an all-year-high in September, with petrol selling at an average price of GHc4.29 at the pumps, and diesel going for an average of GHc4.23 per litre.

The NPA has also culled hopes of a reduction in the prices anytime soon, stating that the taxes on the petroleum products were in the interest of Ghanaians.

However, the Damongo MP, believes that with the number of assurances the NPP has given to the public during the campaign and since assuming power, the government owed Ghanaians an apology for their failure to ensure stability in fuel prices.

“It’s a matter of principle and consistency.  Whatever they told us, they should do it, otherwise they should apologize to Ghanaians. They would not be the first to do that. Former President Kufuor promised to slash down the number of Ministers, when he came into office, he told Ghanaians that he didn’t know that is the nature of governance,” he said.

“If they are coming to confess to Ghanaians that they deceived us during the elections they should come out and say it and not use gymnastics.”

Analysts have stated that, the surge in fuel prices could be among other things be as a result of crude oil price on the international market, as well as the depreciation of the Ghanaian currency – the cedi.

Some have also complained that the numerous taxes on petroleum products, could have led to a surge in prices, and have thus called on the government to review them.

NPA Boss Hassan Tampuli defended the taxes saying they help to stabilize the prices and availability of the product within the country.

But Adam Mutawakilu believes that the NPP’s criticism of the Mahama administration’s handling of fuel pricing seemed to suggest that they had plans in place to address the challenges.

“We were in this country in March 2015, when there was an increase in petroleum prices, [Bawumia] raised issues with respect to the increase, and that government was insensitive to the plight of Ghanaians. When the NDC government brought the special petroleum tax of 17.5, we heard what the NPP said about it. The current Chairman of Finance Committee said he was willing to shed his blood to resist the tax. When we brought in the Energy Sector Levy, the NPP in opposition made it categorically clear that if they come into power they will scrap it,” he said.

“When they got power, the Minister-designate of Finance, said petroleum prices would not increase and would remain the same. Nine months down the line, the Energy Minister is saying there’s nothing he can do [about the increase]. You don’t just get up and speak. I believed that when they were criticizing us, they had alternatives which is why they said they would scrap it.”

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By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Apologise for ‘deceiving’ Ghanaians on removal of fuel taxes – Minority appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Mr. Agyeman Manu had indicated that the Mahama-led government had overseen an GHC 800 million debt at the National Health Insurance Scheme [NHIS}, leading to a withdrawal of services by some service providers.

[contextly_sidebar id=”OIOiueFpVl78mQGkYOS7Y8CSp8Gk1l9C”]He added that he was unsure when the arrears would be cleared.

However, according to Mr. Yieleh-Chireh, the Minister did not make an attempt acquire the data required to answer the question despite the fact that the said request had been made two weeks prior to the encounter.

Speaking on Eyewitness News on Thursday, the former Health Minister stated that the current Minister’s unpreparedness led to a number of evasive answers when he addressed the House.

“My question to the Minister was for him to tell Ghanaians about what the government has done about outstanding payments to service providers. If he was prepared to answer the questions which it appeared he wasn’t he’d have told us the amount outstanding, the amount paid so far and what’s left. He didn’t any of this at all. The purpose was to get information,” he said.

“I don’t expect a Minister to have all this information in his head but this question was posed about two weeks ago. He could have asked the agencies responsible, to provide up-to-the-minute data on how much NHIS had paid to service providers.”

Mr. Yieleh Chireh said the Health Minister had no excuse for not having appropriate responses to the question posed as he could have inquired from the responsible agencies.

“If as a Minister, you are asked a question and the answer is in the Upper West Region, you’ll ask your agencies with the answer. The NHIA is in Accra so if there is a request for the state of the scheme he should be able to get it. The Minister didn’t make the effort to get the information. That’s my understanding,” he added.

“As soon as I posed the question, he would talk from his head and that’s not done. You are telling the whole of Ghana that this is what the Government has done so far. The question was when the outstanding debts are going to be settled but he didn’t indicate anything clearly. The Minister must be reading from an official script because we are talking about figures and payment to people. I didn’t see any official of his in the Chamber. Anytime a Minister is asking questions there’s an official there to support and supply answers the Minister doesn’t have.”

‘No urgency from Gov’t’

The President, Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo, stated in June that his administration was working towards clearing the debts of the scheme within the next 18 months.

Parliament also approved the formula for the disbursement of the National Health Insurance Fund for 2017.

However, according to Joseph Yieleh-Chireh, the government hasn’t shown much urgency so far in clearing the NHIS’ debts to service providers despite it being a major issue during their campaign ahead of the elections.

“The NPP campaigned on this problem so I expected them to have urgency in dealing with the matter systematically but how many weeks did it take them to set up a Board? If they wanted to sort out the problem of payment, the first thing they would have done was to set up a Board to look at the payments but they didn’t do that. The urgency with which you handle the matter shows that you want to solve it.”

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By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Health Minister was unprepared for Parliament’s questions – MP appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.