The Auditor-General's decision to surcharge 35 contractors to recover $7.9 million, equivalent to about GH¢94.6 million, over unexecuted or poorly executed works under the Agenda 111 hospital projects is a troubling indictment of Ghana's public financial management system.
Payment records conducted as well as physical inspections of project sites revealed that contractors received the standard 10 per cent of their contract sum as mobilisation meant to fund preparatory works, but no work was done.
Agenda 111 was conceived as a transformative intervention to bridge critical gaps in healthcare infrastructure across the country. It promised hope to underserved communities, relief to overstretched referral hospitals, and tangible progress towards universal health coverage.
That such a flagship programme has been undermined by contractor irresponsibility and weak supervision should concern every Ghanaian.
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The revelation that some contractors took mobilisation funds and either abandoned their sites or barely commenced work raises serious questions about procurement due diligence, contract monitoring, and accountability within the implementing agencies.
The Ghanaian Times reiterates that mobilisation advances are not windfalls; they are public resources released in trust to facilitate immediate work. Treating them otherwise amounts to a betrayal of that trust.
While the Auditor-General deserves commendation for enforcing sanctions, surcharges alone cannot address the systemic weaknesses exposed by this scandal.
The more troubling issue is how contractors with questionable capacity were awarded contracts in the first place, and how they were allowed to default without early intervention. Effective project supervision should have detected non-performance long before audit reports brought the matter to public attention.
Beyond the financial loss, the human cost of stalled Agenda 111 projects is immense. Delays translate into overcrowded hospitals, longer travel distances for patients, preventable deaths, and demoralised health professionals forced to work under inadequate conditions. Every unfinished health facility represents not just wasted money, but lives placed at risk.
Government must therefore go beyond recovering funds. We call for the blacklisting and if warranted, prosecution and possible disqualification of defaulting contractors from future public contracts.
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Also important, public officials who failed in their supervisory responsibilities must be held to account. Accountability cannot be selective if it is to be credible.
As Ghana grapples with fiscal constraints, the margin for waste and inefficiency has narrowed considerably. Programmes like Agenda 111 must be protected from abuse through stronger procurement screening, tighter contract management, and real-time monitoring mechanisms.
The surcharge of the 35 contractors should serve as a warning, not merely a footnote in another audit report.
Public funds are scarce, public patience is thin, and public trust is fragile. Restoring confidence requires decisive action: swift, transparent, and uncompromising.
Anything less would mean accepting that national development can continue to be held hostage by impunity.
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