Five polyclinics cited by government as achievements in the Western region do not exist, journalists have found.
“There is nothing like a polyclinic there”, Kojo Brace of Takoradi-based radio station Sky Power reported after dispatching a team of resident reporters to Bogoso, Nsuayem, and Mpohor districts of the Western region to verify the claims of the government.
The NDC, in its 2016 Manifesto, stated that five (5) polyclinics have been completed and are operational in five areas in the Western Region.
“The following have been completed and are operational: five (5) in the Western Region at Wassa Dunkwa, Bogoso, Nsuaem, Mpohor and Elubo,” stated the NDC Manifesto.
In order to check the claims, Sky Power put together a team of journalists living in these areas. As at the time of the report, three of the polyclinics were verified as non-existent. The Mphor and Elubo districts are yet to the visited.
From Bogoso, the journalist reported that the chief of the area gave land to government within this year for such a project to commence, “but as of now, it is only the clearing of the land that has been done. The existing health centre has not had any renovations done on it to give an indication that may be that structure is to be turned into a polyclinic.”
From Nsuaem, which is in the Tarkwa Nsuaem constituency, the resident reporter indicated the town has seen nothing like that.
“I have just spoken to an authority at the health centre here, and he tells me he has not even heard of anything like that here. The people living in Nsuaem have not heard of any land that has been acquired for the building of this polyclinic,” our reporter told us from Nsuaem.
For Mpohor, the Member of Parliament, Hon. Alex Agyekum told us that there is no polyclinic in the town. He added, however, that the Assembly has awarded a contract to someone for the construction of a theatre as a way of upgrading the health centre into a district hospital.
“I posed a question to the Minister of Health as to when the health centre in the Mpohor District will be upgraded since we are now a fully-fledged district. He responded that they will put it in their plans for future considerations.
As such, the District Assembly, of which, I am a member, has awarded a contract to someone for the building of a theatre. That building is currently at the lintle level. I am also using my own resources to rehabilitate a structure to be used by the Medical Director if the clinic is finally upgraded,” he stated.
Agyekum said he will be shocked if anybody will issue a statement of fact that the polyclinic has been completed and is operational.
“I will be shocked if anybody will say that there is a polyclinic in Mpohor. It is the old health centre that we are currently renovating for an upgrade,” he said.
Employment minister Haruna Iddrisu who was on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show Wednesday explained these are mistakes in the manifesto.
He described it as a “regrettable omission” and a “misarrangement of a paragraph” in the manifesto. He explained the projects are supposed to be part of polyclinics government intends to construct in the future.
He said the publication in the 2016 manifesto is and error and “not intended to deceive”.
“Why don’t you make mistakes?” he said.
Join GhanaStar.com to receive daily email alerts of breaking news in Ghana. GhanaStar.com is your source for all Ghana News. Get the latest Ghana news, breaking news, sports, politics, entertainment and more about Ghana, Africa and beyond.
