Government is being asked to disclose the cost of the Vice President’s medical trip to the United Kingdom.
Mr. Patrick Stephenson, Head of Research at IMANI Africa, told Business Day: “how much it’s going to cost the country to provide him health care outside the shores of this country needs to be provided in the public domain.”
He continued: “I don’t think this information should be concealed from the public…” Stephenson told Business Day on the sidelines of the launch of IMANIFESTO – an assessment of the first year of President Nana Akufo-Addo’s administration.
The IMANI head of research agrees that “There are certain details about the [veep’s] privacy that need to be preserved and so those are things that may not be openly disclosed or discussed to the public” but information regarding cost should not be hidden.
He stretched the argument to say that government needs to account for the various budget allocations involved in maintaining other office holders.
According to him, the conversations around this area is a little murky because “we don’t know what illness he is suffering from, etc., but as considered citizens we are worried that we cannot provide better and quality health care in our country.
Generally, the view is that in the interest of accountability, relevant committees in parliament or civil society watchdogs should request the government to disclose all funds spent to pay medical bills for state officers.
This is not the first time concerns are being raised about the public officers’ medical care abroad at the expense of the state.
Between 2010 and 2012, there were similar demands on government to disclose the cost of the then President John Evans Atta-Mills’ medical trips to the United States of America.
In his case, the taxpayers believed they deserved to know how their monies were being spent. Apart from that concern, there was also concern about his long absence from work because of the frequently recurring medical check-ups.
At the time, the policy advisor of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and now deputy finance minster, Kweku Kwarteng, said the President was not under any obligation to disclose his medical bills but he could do so in the name of accountability and transparency.
Global examples
Stephenson does not think that there is a global convention established regarding the reporting of medical expenditure of officialdom. “I am not sure there is a standard practice for the provision of health care. The major thing is the country needs to have a quality health care system that provides equal health care to all in the country,” he said.
Elsewhere, the BBC reported during the reign of President Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe that he drew $3 million from the treasury each time he travelled to Singapore for medical check-up.
Get better hospitals
The veep’s condition has resuscitated demands for Ghana to build for itself highest quality medical facilities that can take of the country’s officials.
In the past week, Accra-based Citi FM has recounted evidence of at least 16 medical facilities, including the University of Ghana Hospital at Legon being more or less abandoned.
On these projects, per Citi FM’s calculation, at least 1 billion US dollars have been sunk in the 16 projects at various levels of development which are littered across the country but have been left unattended.
The matter of concern is that all the funds being spend abroad on medical bills might be enough to equip at least one hospital in Ghana.
Stephenson supports this point: “The Vice President is the son of the Republic; he is a public office holder, he is an asset of the country. For that matter, it is important that we provide the best health care for him…
“But what this means immediately is that we should aim as a country to build the required health infrastructure that can take care of people in here.
“That is not happening and it is a worry.
“Bearing in mind our former president had to die because we couldn’t provide certain emergency services in terms of health care when he needed them most, and unfortunately we lost him.
Citizens must push
By their nature, politicians are not likely to respond affirmatively to these demands.
Therefore, “Ghanaians can only do this when they are active citizens and not passive citizens.”
He posits that: “If you visit Korle-Bu and you are being treated in a particular manner and another public office worker walks in and is being treated another way, it quickly tells you the system needs to wake-up.
“So, we need good and proper functioning health care as a people…”
By Frederick ASIAMAH & Sheila WILLIAMS
