Hon Charles Agbeve, a member of Health Committee in Parliament and Member of Parliament for Agotime Ziope constituency in the Volta Region speaking to Rite News said the several conflicting excuses of the government on this matter are contrived and deliberately calculated to conceal the real intention of the government in this matter; which is to delay the distribution of the ambulances until a few months to the 2020 general elections for cheap electoral gain”
These ambulances, some of which were imported into the country some four (4) months ago, have been lying idle at the forecourt of the State House despite a groundswell of public outcry that they be released.
In spite of genuine calls for these ambulances to be distributed to complement the country’s challenged National Ambulance Service and emergency health system, the vehicles are still parked without distribution.
He noted with great concern the refusal of the Akufo-Addo government to release ambulances procured with taxpayers’ money for their intended purpose.
He described the excuses from the appropriate authorities as needless
“It would be recalled that following public condemnation of the continuous detention of the ambulances last year, the Minister of Special Development Initiatives, Hawa Koomson told the public that the Akufo-Addo government was in the process of training drivers, paramedics and other staff to operate the ambulances, hence the undue delay in distributing the ambulances”.
“The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, is also on record to have said that the ambulances required digitization”.
“But these flimsy excuses, alongside other cock and bull stories from the stables of government, were later to be amended by President Akufo-Addo. In an answer to a question about the ambulances at his last media encounter, President Akufo-Addo confessed that he refused a request from the Minister of Special Development Initiatives to release the first batch of ambulances with the excuse of wanting to ensure an even distribution of same so as to avoid accusations of favoritism against his government so you cant see the head and the tail of the whole story,” he stated.
President Akufo-Addo had announced at his recent encounter with the media that the much talked about ambulances will be released on Monday, 6 January 2020.
However, a request from the National Ambulance Service through the Ministry of Health asked that the release of the ambulances be postponed for some technical issues to be dealt with.
By Austin Ofori Addo/ritefmonline.org
