The Odododiodoo Constituency Member of Parliament, Nii Lante Vanderpuye, has cautioned the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration to include funding for the reconstruction of La General Hospital in the 2024 budget.
He threatened to stage a protest on behalf of the Greater Accra caucus of the Minority, the people of La and Ga Mashie, and the government itself if the funding for the La General Hospital is not included in the 2024 budget.
Speaking on Tuesday in Accra’s Parliament, he stated, “I am assuring you that, if we don’t see it in the 2024 budget, we will not make the budget in this house come out. We will make sure that sitting will be disrupted until we see the La General Hospital captured in the budget. We will show you that you are on our land. This will be another showdown.”
“We will make sure that the Minister of Health and the Minister of Finance will not enjoy the peace in their ministries. We are going to marshal the people of La and Ga Mashie to occupy your offices if you don’t work at the La General Hospital.”
Demolished La General Hospital: We will not allow 2024 budget go through if there are no commitments on the hospital. – Odododiodio MP#JoyNews pic.twitter.com/xE9R3lEysv
— JoyNews (@JoyNewsOnTV) November 7, 2023
The Majority Leader of Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has blamed the facility’s sponsors’ lack of funding for the delay in rebuilding Accra’s La General Hospital.
According to Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu’s statement to Parliament, the sponsors withheld the funds after Ghana had discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“Mr. Speaker, what has happened is that after the engagement with the IMF, funding from those sources that Parliament approved of, the funding has been withheld by the sponsors.”
“Mr. Speaker, until the nation is given a clean bill of health by the IMF, it is going to be difficult for the funding to be released. This is why the government now wants to situate it within the context of Agenda 111, and that will mean that the facility will have to be scaled down a bit,” Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said.
The administration of the hospital reported serious structural issues, which led to the deconstruction of the La General Hospital in July 2020.
