The Upper East Regional Minister, Ms Paulina Patience Abayage has warned against the awarding of numerous contracts to one contractor to the neglect of others.
Such a practice, she explained, slowed work and project completion schedules and must be stopped henceforth.
The Regional Minister made the observation when she inaugurated a newly constructed Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compound at Pentengsa in the Builsa South District of the Upper East Region.
She remarked that she was very happy with the even spread of development projects across all the 15 municipalities and districts in the region, but described the situation where numerous projects were awarded to one contractor as not the best, stressing that “such trend often slow down work and project completion schedules.”
The CHPS compound the Regional Minister inaugurated at the Pentengsa is made up of several units, including a reproductive and child health outfit, an out-patient department (OPD) and a maternity unit with a labour room attached.
The CHPS is a national strategy in Ghana aimed at delivering essential community-based health services with a primary focus on deprived communities.
Inaugurating the project on Monday, the Regional Minister noted that, hitherto, the community members used to trek to neighbouring communities to access their basic healthcare needs.
Ms Abayage expressed the hope that with the full operationalisation of the CHPS compound, it would save people in the area from spending a lot of time to access their health needs.
According to the Regional Minister, one of the major reasons accounting for the high rates of maternal and infant mortalities in rural areas of the country was as a result of lack of quality health service delivery points.
Ms Abayage and her team also inspected ongoing works on a 1,000 metric tonnes warehouse and a newly constructed slaughter house at Baasa also in the same district, which has since been roofed and fenced awaiting furnishing.
She also visited the Builsa North District, where she was led by authorities of the Sandema Senior High School, to inspect work on a 20-room boy’s dormitory which had reached roofing level estimated to house about 200 students upon completion.
Ms Abayage also inspected the progress of works on the multipurpose business resource centre and the one-storey police headquarters, all in Sandema under construction
In another development, the Regional Minister also inspected the progress of works on the Navrongo Sports Stadium and the 500-capacity girls’ dormitory and a six-unit classroom block, both funded by the Ghana Education Trust Fund at the Awe Senior High Technical School within Navrongo in the Kassena-Nankana West District.
FROM SAMUEL AKAPULE, PENTENGSA
