Pe Tibiru unhappy with contractors in the Kassena-Nankana District

By Godfred Polkuu, GNA
Korania (U/E) Oct. 25, GNA - Pe John Tibiru, Chief of Korania in the Kassena- Nankana District in the Upper East Region, has expressed unhappiness with the poor quality of work undertaken by some contractors in the area.

He said 'tax payer's monies were used for these infrastructure, if anything comes from government we have to be responsible to take care of it properly.'

Pe Tibiru said the poor quality works had imparted negatively on infrastructure in the community and this has affected productivity especially healthcare and agriculture as community members can hardly access healthcare

He said the only Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compound which was built recently was already in a deplorable state because it had cracks on the walls and its doors have been changed several times.

He said the facility had become a breeding place for reptiles owing to shoddy works by some contractors.

Pe Tibiru, who was speaking at a durbar organised by SEND-Ghana, a Non-Governmental Organisation, to sensitise the community members on how government institutions prepared and implemented their budgets, said a structure like the War Memorial Hospital in Navrongo which was built so many years ago, was still in good shape compared to buildings of today.

'Sometimes we have to mobilise people to be able to maintain certain things that the government has done for us,' Pe Tibiru said.

He expressed worry about the poor road network leading to the community which had caused several accidents over the years adding that 'if you don't have good roads, you can't have good schools and hospitals.'

Mr Essien Emmanuel, Assistant Budget Analyst for the Kassena-Nankana District, assured the chief and his people that the Assembly would do all it could to ensure that contractors presented quality projects for approval.

He called on community members to acquire proper permit before putting up structures to prevent them from building on water ways and on major areas designated for roads.

Mr Alhassan Saliah, an Internal Auditor at the District Health Directorate, said the total budget for the Directorate was GH¢1,823,000 which would be sourced from the District Assembly's common fund, Ghana Health Service and other supporting donors.

Mr Saliah said the District has only one public health nurse and this has necessitated the plan to convert the Navrongo Health Centre into a training centre to train public health nurses to augment health delivery in the District at the cost of GH₵122,533.00

He said the Health Directorate's block needed refurbishment, and so it the Directorate had included renovation works and upgrading several CHPS compounds and health centres in the District as part of the Directorate's budget.

He said the Ghana Health Service (GHS) with support from the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) would fund the management of acute malnutrition in children at a cost of GH₵35,000.00.

He said it was part of the budget to quarterly supply food rations and counselling for people living with HIV/AIDS also at GH₵35,000.00.

He said five laptop computers were budgeted for at a cost of GH₵10,000.00 for health information management in the District.

He said projects budgeted for could only come to fruition depending on the availability of funds and thanked the Chief and people of the community and the District Assembly for the support.

Mr Humphrey Atiiga, the District Citizenship Monitoring Committee Organiser for SEND-Ghana, urged community members to act as watchdogs and take interest in development projects in the community.

GNA