Omane Boamah Poses Three Questions To Bawumia On Drones

Former Communication Minister Dr Edward Omane Boamah has posed three questions to Dr Bawumia on the drones project.

The former communication minister in a Facebook post, asked the Vice President to consider the following

• Cost Benefit Analysis
• Cost Utility Analysis
• Cost Quality Analysis

The Minority members of Ghana Parliament have also kicked against the $12 million contract between government and Zipline International for drones to supply drugs, blood and other medical supplies.

Some civil society organizations and experts in the medical field have vehemently condemned the deal describing it as error in priority. In governance and business today, it is essential to get the most of every idea, option and investment. To accomplish this, many governments and policymakers use cost benefit analysis to help make important decisions. Governments and decision makers rely on cost benefit analysis to support decision making because it provides an agnostic, evidence based view of the issue being evaluated. The best economic evaluation method for doing this is cost utility analysis. This will help government compare the costs of different procedures or options with their outcomes measured in utility based units.

Ghanaians, including civil society organizations,are questioning the wisdom behind the Vice President's initiative considering the sea of challenges facing the country including inadequate health facilities for citizens to access good healthcare.

Transparent allocation of resources is very critical. We still have hundreds of uncompleted hospitals across the country, we have qualified nurses still staying at home, qualified doctors sitting at home. Why are we abandoning these projects for a more complex project. You cannot in good conscience set a critical priority unless you also designate desirable project from which resources will be immediately transferred to the designated critical project when required.

The issue has received international attention with some foreign newspapers and websites including BBC and ABC ridiculing our government over this wasteful project.