The government of Ghana has contracted to pay an amount of $410,368.12 per bed space for the construction of a maternity clinic at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. In Ghana cedis, that is GHc2,527,867.63 per bed at an exchange rate of GHc6.16 as at yesterday.
At an average floor price of $ 13,678,929.05, the Korle Bu Maternity Project is a solid 4.4 million dollars higher than the average floor price of the most expensive piece of real estate in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Each floor of the Burj Khalifa comes in at an average cost of $9,202,453.00.
At the same time, the government of Ghana is paying an average of GHc 2.6 million cedis for a bed and equipment at the new dialysis centre, also under construction at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, and questions are being asked about value for money.
We believe that the government therefore, has a duty to probe the entire process, if not to save money this time round, then at least to make sure that such future procurements do not cost Ghana so much.
The Daily Searchlight is of the very firm belief that these procurements are not meeting value for money standards, and ought to be investigated.
We believe that there is a real need to probe these procurements, because the amounts of monies stated for these constructions, and the benefits that would accrue from them, do not march in any way. The distance between the two are just two far apart.
