The Minority Chief Whip, Governs Kwame Agbodza, has labelled as "abysmal" the record of the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-led government in the areas of health and roads infrastructure.
The Adaklu MP said the government had held "pomp and pageantry sod cutting exercise" even when there were no funds, to hoodwink Ghanaians that it meant well.
Taking his turn to participate in the ongoing debate of the 2024 budget statement and economic policy of the government in Parliament, Accra, yesterday, Mr Agbodza said the government cared less about the little intervention that improved the living conditions of the people.
Citing the demolished La General Hospital as an example, he said "sod cutting is not procurement. The idea that you can go and cut sod, sometimes twice for a particular project (underlines how abysmal your government has been)."
Mr Agbodza said his assertion that the government cared less about the everyday needs of the Ghanaian was borne from the suspension of the phase two of the Ridge Hospital project.
"Today, we (in the NDC) can boast of the Greater Accra Regional Hospital. The second phase of that project has been suspended by the government of President Akufo-Addo.
"But interestingly, right opposite the abandoned phase two project of the Ridge Hospital, they are building a US$250 million Bank of Ghana headquarters."
He said while the NDC could point to tangibles in the health infrastructure, the current administration could not do so despite its much touted "Agenda 111" initiative and year of roads.
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According to him, the erstwhile John Mahama-led NDC administration did not only invest in health infrastructure but personnel by investing in training institutions including establishing medical schools to train healthcare practitioners.
"Today, there are people who go to the University of Health and Allied Sciences in Ho to become medical doctors. People can now go to the University of Cape Coast to become doctors. These are tangible and sustainable ways of developing health care in our country. Your record is abysmal," he stated.
In the area of roads, Kwame Agbodza said the government's fixation was on building new roads and neglecting the maintenance of existing ones in the process.
He argued that maintenance works prolong the lifespan of road networks but the government had overlooked that for new roads for parochial partisan considerations.
He said, whilst in the 2016, as reported by the 2017 budget, the erstwhile administration undertook maintenance works on over 10,000 km trunk roads, 16,000 km feeder roads, and 9,000 km on urban roads, the government in 2022 managed to maintain only 4,800 km trunk roads, 8,000 km feeder roads and 2,000 km urban done respectively.
Acknowledging that the problem of the road sector was financing, Mr Agbodza said, whereas all the GH¢1 billion that accrued in the road fund was reinvested into the sector during the reign of the NDC, the current government invested only a billion of the GH¢2.6 billion it collected in 2022.
He said the conditions of roads may deteriorate further because of the debt restructuring programme which had led to the stalling of major projects across the country.
