Thirty-five contractors hired under Ghana’s Agenda 111 programme did not move to their assigned sites or executed work that fell short of the advance mobilisation funds they had received, according to the government’s arrears audit findings.

The disclosure was made in Ghana’s Parliament when Deputy Finance Minister Thomas Nyarko Ampem delivered a statement on behalf of Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson.

In his address to legislators, Mr Ampem explained that the contractors had collectively been paid approximately US$7.9 million in advance mobilisation funds for the project, yet some failed to commence work while others undertook activities that did not reflect the payments made.

The statement indicated that the Ghana Audit Service has since issued surcharge notices to the contractors implicated in the matter.

These developments have intensified concerns surrounding the administration of the Agenda 111 project, widely regarded as one of the largest healthcare infrastructure programmes initiated during the tenure of former President Nana Akufo-Addo and the New Patriotic Party government.

Introduced in 2021, the project aimed to build 111 district and regional hospitals nationwide to expand healthcare access, particularly in communities lacking adequate medical facilities.

Despite its objectives, the programme has repeatedly come under scrutiny due to construction delays, escalating costs, and concerns about monitoring and accountability.

Mr Ampem also revealed that the advance payment guarantees associated with the 35 contracts have all lapsed, leaving the government with limited contractual safeguards to recover the money should the contractors fail to honour the surcharge directives.

The Ministry of Finance did not specify whether further legal action or recovery strategies would be pursued beyond the measures already initiated by the Ghana Audit Service.

It also remains uncertain how many of the proposed 111 hospitals have been completed or have reached significant stages of construction.

The Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has attributed the decision by President John Mahama to order an audit into the Agenda 111 project to the lack of clarity and transparency surrounding its implementation under the previous administration.

Speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen, Mr. Akandoh revealed that none of the hospitals promised under the initiative is currently operational.

“None of the Agenda 111 hospitals is operational as we speak, which is why President Mahama has directed that an audit be conducted to understand the true status of the project,” he stated.

He criticised the former Akufo-Addo administration for what he described as poor planning and mismanagement of the health infrastructure project.

“We all know how Agenda 111 started. The way the project was handled wasn’t the best. Even if you intend to build 111 hospitals, you could stagger the project and complete them in phases,” the Minister said.

He pointed out that the Akufo-Addo government had assured the public that some of the hospitals would be completed and handed over before the end of their term. However, none of these facilities are in use.

“He mentioned that they had completed three hospitals and even commissioned some on December 5. But when President Mahama gave his first State of the Nation Address and referenced it, I went to verify, and unfortunately, none of those hospitals was operational,” Mr. Akandoh noted.

Highlighting inconsistencies in the project's financing, the Minister disclosed that about $400 million had already been spent out of the estimated $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion budgeted for the entire project.

“The interesting part is, if they had staggered the project as they should have, by now we could have completed more than 20 hospitals with that amount. But that wasn’t the case,” he lamented.

With the Agenda 111 initiative now under the purview of the Ministry of Health, Mr. Akandoh said steps are being taken to assess its feasibility and ensure proper execution moving forward.

“President Mahama has directed us to audit the Agenda 111 project and present him with a clear blueprint for the way forward, and we’ve been given timelines,” he added.

The Ministry of Health has dismissed statements made by former Finance Minister Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, who claimed that three hospitals under the Agenda 111 initiative were completed, furnished with medical equipment, and inaugurated before the previous administration left office.

During a press briefing on Monday, Dr. Adam asserted that three hospitals had been fully completed and that $1.3 billion had been allocated to finish the remaining Agenda 111 projects.

However, in a statement released on Tuesday, March 4, 2025, the Health Ministry denied these assertions and urged the public to disregard them.

The Ministry reported that on March 3, officials visited the Trede and Kokoben hospital sites in the Ashanti Region to evaluate progress. Their assessment found that essential medical infrastructure, including imaging devices, medical gas systems, and mortuary equipment, was yet to be installed.

Despite the previous government investing $400 million in the initiative, the Ministry emphasized that none of the Agenda 111 hospitals had been completed and made operational. Although the facilities at Trede, Kokoben, and Ahanta had been inaugurated by former President Nana Akufo-Addo, construction was still in progress, with an estimated completion rate of 95 percent. Some laboratory sections remained unfinished, and no medical devices had been put in place.

Furthermore, the Ministry clarified that these hospitals had not been handed over to the Ghana Health Service for use. It estimated that an additional $8.03 million would be required to make each of the three hospitals fully functional. The overall cost to complete all pending Agenda 111 hospital projects had now risen to $1.589 billion.