Link here: https://goo.gl/JF72Vt

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This means that the government managed to save over GH¢1.2 billion which otherwise would have been paid out as liability claims.

Another very troubling development discovered during the assessment of the report on Liabilities of Ministries in Ghana was the difficulty of the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to reconcile its liability portfolio with figures provided by the Ministry of Health which resulted in huge discrepancies.

For example; a schedule of debt compiled by MoF on behalf of Ghana Health Service asserted that government was indebted to five contractors totaling GH¢14,742,846.39 as at 31 December, 2016. However, MoH asserted that government liability in relation to various transactions was GH¢1,003,951.30 as at 31 December, 2016.

Read Also: Gov’t rejected payment claims of over GH¢40 million to Zoomlion in 2017

Below is an infographic breakdown of the liability claims that were rejected by the Auditor General under the Ministry of Health in 2017.

Report by  Gideon Sarpong | Policy Analyst |  iWatch Africa

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They said one of the lessons learnt during the first one-month of the iWatch project was the challenge in accessing critical information for their reviews.

“One of the lessons learnt is that, public officials are not very forthcoming when critical information is needed,” said Mr Gideon Sarpong, Co-Founder /Policy and Content Analyst at iWatch Africa.

The Project, which is aimed at putting a spotlight on government’s promises and monitoring their implementation in communities across Ghana and promote citizen participation in governance in order to hold their leaders accountable, is spearheaded by a group of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI).

Mr. Sarpong, at the review and evaluation session of the Project, lauded its impact in offering citizens the opportunity to objectively assess the performance of the government through its unified gauge accountability reports.

This, he said, would deepen the democratic process in Ghana, adding that the Project would continue to assess government’s commitments in the 2017 Budget Statement.

The Project reviewed commitments in Health, Education, Government Expenditure and Job Creation during the one month period.

“We look forward to expanding our focus areas to include procurement and SOEs in 2018,” Mr Sarpong said.

He raised concerns about the management of the public purse, which he said was not encouraging after review of several reports by the Auditor General.

“The attorney general has a mandate to recover all monies that were illegally expended,” he noted.

Mr. Sarpong said the iWatch Africa Team was engaging the Ministry of Information to find ways of addressing some of the challenges that they faced during the Project, especially with regard to access to information.

Read Also: iWatch Africa meets the Minister of Information towards deepening transparency in governance

He added that they were also liaising with the Ghana Integrity Initiative on the way forward and how to sustain and scale up the Project in the future.

Ms. Sara V. Stealy, the Press Attaché at the United States’ Embassy in Ghana, commended the team for their hard work and said the focus areas tied in with the Embassy’s work in Ghana.

The use of digital media, including social media on the Project was good for shining the light on the issues identified.

She added that the work of the team represented former President Barack Obama’s vision for the YALI Project.

Source: GNA

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Below is a summary of the findings discussed with the Minister of Information on Monday, 11th September, 2017. The minister assured the iWatch Africa team that the government will put in place the necessary measures to address the concerns raised.

Tracking Government Commitments in the 2017 Budget Statement;

Planting for Food and Jobs Program in Ho Municipality:

As part of our assessment of the Planting for Food and Jobs Program, iWatch Africa has uncovered the following challenges we believe will help the government improve on the program in the Ho Municipality and also across the country;

1. Inadequate logistics for the effective monitoring of the program
2. Inadequate extension officers
3. Youth in the community have shown disinterest in the program as a result of the stigma that comes with farming

Salaga: 60-bed hospital project abandoned as residents cry out to government

Residents of Salaga in the East Gonga District at the Northern Region of Ghana are calling on government to complete a 60-bed district hospital that has been abandoned for some months now. Roads leading to alternative health centers are also in very deplorable conditions.
Sekondi district hospital project in limbo after groundbreaking ceremony four years ago
Four years after a sod-cutting ceremony to commence construction of the Sekondi hospital project, iWatch Africa can confirm that nothing has been done. We call on the government to look into possible causes of this situation and address the concerns.

Over GH¢600 million in off-shore accounts at risk of abuse & recovery

As part of our review of the Auditor’s report for the Consolidated Fund 2016, we discovered that;

The Consolidated Fund report for 2016 indicates that no accounting records with enabling terms and agreement were maintained by Controller and Accountant General Department (CAGD) on these accounts.

Banko Du Brazil- Hanger project – 69,486,464
Banko Du Brazil- Eastern corridor – 24,049,241
CDB owner contribution – 206,380,064
CDB Debt Service Reserve 366,604,322
CDB Collection Account 9,576,037

Free SHS Policy

Free SHS Policy: Our review and interview with several stakeholders for the free SHS policy has revealed concerns for the release of funds promptly to support the government’s mandate. We are happy that the government has released GHc240m for the program, but we call on the government to also put all the necessary measures in place to make sure schools administrators receive these funds in a timely manner to be able to operate the schools.

Right to Information Bill

Finally, iWatch Africa re-echoes the need for the government to swiftly pass the Right to Information Bill as promised. Good governance without the Right to Information is not sustainable. (utahcnacenters.com)

iWatch Watch Africa is committed to deepening the democratic process in Ghana by leveraging on the power of data journalism and new media to promote transparency and accountability in Ghana.

Find pictures below:

Gideon Sarpong | Policy and Content Analyst.

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The project which was officially launched in August, 2017 is aimed at tracking governments’ commitments in four thematic areas; education, government expenditure, job creation and health.

Project Lead, Nana Boakye-Yiadom underscored the importance of the passage of the Right to Information Bill in Ghana and also revealed iWatch Africa’s ambition of launching similar modules in other West African countries.

Guest Speaker, Sara Stealy from the US Embassy Ghana also congratulated the iWatch Africa team, and encouraged participants to hold public officials accountable for their actions.

“Governments have a responsibility to provide services to their citizens but citizens have a responsibility to holding governments accountable,” Sara Stealy stated.

Stealy also highlighted some areas the US Embassy is focused on in Ghana.

“Your four areas you are working on here I love as well because it ties into things that the US Embassy really cares about here. Our number one goal is working with Ghana on good governance, anti-corruption issues; our number two goal is investing in people, which is focusing on health and education,” she maintained.

Gideon Sarpong, Policy and Content Analyst for iWatch Africa presented a general overview of the project progress, highlighting some of the major accountability reports produced by the over 60 participants across the ten regions of Ghana.

Team members, Moro Seidu and Justice Kumordzi delivered presentations on some achievements by the iWatch Africa team since the project commenced.

iWatch Africa participants in Accra who were also part of the dialogue shared some experiences and challenges they face in the course of their work, highlighting the challenges associated with accessing information from public officials in Ghana.

The utmost goal of the iWatch Transparency and Accountability Project is to encourage citizen participation in governance, as well as deepen the democratic process in Ghana.

Below are some pictures:

Report was filed by Pearl Afua Acheampong, Gideon Sarpong edited and contributed to it.

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Our assessment of the 2016 Auditor’s report on the Consolidated Fund revealed that the Office of Government Machinery (General Government Services) was allotted GH¢ 2,988,826,659 as represented in the revised budget for 2016 but managed to spend GH¢ 6,103,994,114.

The variance of GH¢ 3,115,167,455 was mainly spent on goods and services details of which were not highlighted in the report.

The over GH¢ 3 billion in excess expenditure is well over a 100 percent of their allotted budget.

The Auditor General blamed the Budget Division of the Ministry of Finance for failing to ensure that approved activities were regularly monitored and reviewed against the approved budget which resulted in the excess expenditure.

Every year, the Auditor-General makes serious findings of many instances of misapplication of colossal amounts by public office holders but has failed to make significant progress when it comes to recovery of misappropriated and misapplied funds.

The Supreme Court in July 2017 granted reliefs sought by pressure group, Occupy Ghana, in respect of the Auditor-General’s powers of disallowance and surcharges. According to the Court, the Auditor-General must issue disallowance and surcharges in respect of all state monies found to have been expended contrary to law.

Read Also: Over GH¢600 million in off-shore accounts at risk of abuse & recovery

The Court also ordered the Auditor-General to take the appropriate steps to recover all amounts lost to the state, and this covers private persons. The Attorney-General was also ordered to ensure enforcement of the orders including criminal prosecution where necessary.

Report Gideon Sarpong  | iWatch Africa

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It is a turnkey arrangement with Messrs NMS Infrastructure and Barclays Bank Plc, London at an estimated cost of US$175m.

The six district hospitals are supposed to be built in Dodowa, Sekondi, Kumawu, Abetifi, Fomena and Garu Tempane.

On 28th of August 2013, the government through the then Minster for Health Hanny Sherry Ayitey broke the ground to signify the commencement of constructional work on the projects which was to be sited at Kansaworodo in the Essikado-Ketan constituency.

Hon. Hanny Sherry Ayittey had disclosed that the European Hospital, located in Takoradi was also going to be upgraded and re-equipped as part of the contract.

She also noted that the 120-bed capacity hospitals represented a new direction and a departure from the traditional building construction technologies.

The Minister had again disclosed that all medical equipment for the construction of the hospitals had been sourced from the United Kingdom, adding that the execution of the projects was underway and being supported by a UK-Ghana technical team.

CONCEPT

It was part of Government’s efforts to eliminate health care disparity in the country to reduce infant and maternal mortality all geared towards the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals four to eight.

DEVELOPMENT

Checks conducted indicate that the construction of the six hospitals commenced in earnest, and at Dodowa in the Greater Accra with progress of work hitting completion stage. When completed, the Dodowa district hospital would be handed over to the community, with 60% progress of work done at the Fomena district hospital, while 45% has been recorded at Kumawu, and 30% at Abetifi.

In the case of the Sekondi hospital, several challenges have stalled the project since the groundbreaking ceremony.

Though part of the six district hospitals, the Sekondi project is yet to commence as at the time of filing this report.

The Sekondi –Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) claims it had to abandon a 50 acre land it had earlier acquired for the construction of the hospital at Kansawrodo, a suburb of Takoradi, after learning that the Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC ) had its pipeline passing through the land in question, which made it unsuitable for the construction of the hospital project. This was discovered months after the ground-breaking ceremony.

The assembly claims it later settled on another land at Eshiam, at the outskirts of Kojokrom, for the execution of the project, but the Eshiam land was also abandoned and a new one located at Essipong was secured for same purpose.

In 2015, the Exim Bank UK got furious and was considering of abrogating the contract.

Apparently, the contract had detailed the funding and construction of the hospitals in the Western Region.

This was made known by the Western Regional Communications Officer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Phamus Tumi Acquah.

I-watch African can confirm that the land secured eventually was also abandoned for a 42 arce land at Kansawrodo.

This land was much closer to the Methodist Senior High School.

The site was handed over to the contractor to conduct topographical survey.

The Takoradi European hospital for instance is at 25% for completion.

All conditions preceding the refurbishment had been fulfilled apart from tax exemption.

CURRENT STATE

Public relations officer of the Sekondi –Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly John Laste confirmed with our Western Regional representative that the assembly has finally secured a 42 acre of land for the construction of the district hospital.

Even with that, he says the contractor had to stop working because there was litigation on ownership of the land

“The land has been handed over to the contractor, over 42 square acres of land and the contractor started moving to site till we had an issue with the ownership of the land”

He says the issue was taken to court and the court has ruled in favour of the family that gave the land to the assembly.

He assured that the assembly would give the land to the ministry of health for construction works to start at the site. He explained that the land litigation was one of the main reasons for the delay in the execution of the project.

“It an issue of we getting back to the contractor and informing him of the court ruling and they will prepare to go back to site to commence work”

Four years after ground breaking, acquiring land has been the major hindrance for the project, so now that the dust has settled when is work likely to begin? This was the question posed by our reporter.

Mr John Laste in response however said “for now i am unable to give specific date as to when the contractor will go back to site. Once that the health directorate is aware of the court decision, it is their duty to officially communicate with the contractor to get back to site” he pointed out.

Mr John Laste revealed that the assembly is just a supervising agency. According to him, because they didn’t award the contract to the contractor, their only role was to get the ministry of health a land, and they would then direct contractor to go to site. But the Regional health director Emmanuel Tinkorang has refused to comment on the progress of work done at the site chosen for the project.

Read Also: Central Region: Mid/third-Quarter Review of GoG Capital Expenditure on Health [Infographic]

Conclusion

Meanwhile residents in the Sekondi Takoradi metropolis say, authorities must do something else the metropolitan area could miss the opportunity presented by the donors.

Again, they are worried that it could affect quality health service delivery in the city due to the increasing number of patients at Out Patients Departments (OPD) of the few hospitals operating in Sekondi Takoradi.

(This report was filed by our Western Region correspondent Ina –Thalia Quansah | iWatch Africa) Edited by Gideon Sarpong.

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Kindly click on the link below to fill out all parts of this questionnaire;

Click on Link : iWatch Africa Transparency & Accountability Project Survey

Kindly provide all answers as independent as possible.

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Most of these kayayeis have migrated from the northern part of the country particularly the Northern region to seek for greener pastures in the city. The over 15 kayayeis who were randomly selected for the interview, expressed their interest in either going back to school or learning a skill like dressmaking or hairdressing. Their plan is to go back to their towns to work after gaining the skill.

Ten-year-old Mariam is a kayayei. She came all the way from Yapei in the Northern region leaving her family to seek for greener pastures in the city. According to her, she is not interested in schooling but is saving up money from the kayayei business to buy a sewing machine to help her learn dressmaking. She will return home to start a business on her own after learning the skill in Kumasi. Out of the GH₵300.00, she needs to buy the sewing machine, she has made only GH₵100.00.

Reported by: Gemma Appiah| Organised & Edited by: Moro Seidu (Monitoring & Evaluation) | iWatch Africa

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According to the report, these funds were budgeted amounts for the first quarter of 2016. Below is an infographic detailing the expenditure of some of these district assemblies for the first quarter of 2016.

Credit: Nana Boakye-Yiadom | iWatch Africa

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