Release
NPP, November 5, 2012
PRESIDENT MAHAMA MUST EXPLAIN INFLATED COST
OF TRAINING OUR STUDENTS IN CUBA
The President, John Dramani Mahama, at last Tuesday’s
presidential debate in Tamale showed why he cannot be trusted
to protect the public purse or promote the interest of the
good people of Ghana.
Just like the botched housing deals he negotiated with STX of
Korea and GUMA of South Africa; the $88 million Embraer 190
jet, which comes with a staircase costing $1 million, a fuel
tank at $8 million and hangar at $17m; in addressing his
controversially costly decision of sending Ghanaians to Cuba
for medical training, President Mahama has, once again,
reaffirmed the kind of chronic recklessness he has employed in
negotiating deals for and on behalf of Ghana.
The GH¢160 million agreement with the Cuban government, which
was championed by the then Vice President John Mahama,
includes the training of 250 Ghanaian students as doctors as
well as funding for the services of the Cuban medical brigade.
The President led and negotiated this deal with the Cuban
government, which he announced to the country on October 23,
2011. It is worth noting, that figure was equivalent to
US$96.5 million at the time it received cabinet approval last
year.
We wish to inform the Ghanaian public that the cost of
training one Namibian doctor in Cuba under an identical scheme
is US$13,748.52 a year. Yet, under the deal struck by
President Mahama, the cost of training such a Ghanaian student
in Cuba is put at US$25,330.06 per annum. In fact, we are
paying nearly twice what the Namibians are doing. The
President must explain to Ghanaians why we are paying so much
more than our southern African neighbours.
THE PRESIDENT LIED TO GHANAIANS
President Mahama at the IEA debate stated categorically that
the Cuban deal to train a single Ghanaian doctor is costing
that taxpayer just $5,000 a year, adding that “it is cheaper
than training a doctor in Ghana.” That was a blatant lie and
we will show why. According to the Ghana Medical Association,
it would cost US$36,000 (GH¢72,000) to train a Ghanaian doctor
for six years. The Cuban deal means one doctor is being
trained at US$151,980 (GH¢303,960) for the entire six year
period.
The question Ghanaians are asking is this: Mr President, did
you crosscheck to satisfy yourself that the Cuban deal you
committed the nation to was cheaper than the alternative of
training doctors locally in Ghana?
The answer is a big no. Because if he did, with the benefit of
all the facts before him, he couldn't have made that false
statement at the debate that the Cuban deal was cheaper.
Unless, of course, he deliberately said so to deceive the
people of Ghana.
What is the truth? The truth is that President John Dramani
Mahama lied to all Ghanaians on live national television when
he said it was costing Ghana “only” $5,000 a year to train a
single student in Cuba. No good negotiator would have
committed his nation to such a deal without satisfying himself
of the cost of the obvious alternative. Such is the nature of
the regular recklessness with which deals associated with this
President has been done.
LEAKED CABINET MEMO
We have a copy of the cabinet memo signed by the then sector
Minister of Health, Joseph Yieleh Chireh.
The memo, prepared before the recent massive fall in the cedi
against major foreign currencies, states: “the budget for the
basic training of doctors and of specialists works out to GH¢74,344,960
for the period of the Medical Cooperation” with “an amount of
GH¢14,498,960” needed for the first year, 2012.
According to the Minister of Health, the cost of training each
one of our Senior High School graduates sent to medical
schools in Cuba amounts to GH¢50,660.12 (¢506.6 million) a
year. This means that at the end of the six years, we would
have spent US$151,980 or GH¢303,960 (¢3.0396 billion) on each
of those students.
We are not saying it, the Cabinet memo says it. It continues:
“For the 200 students that are proposed for training in Cuba,
this will work out to GH¢10,132,024.00) for each year. For the
six years of training, this works out to GH¢60,792,144.00. The
cost of training a specialist in Cuba is about GH¢48,189.12
per annum per student. For the 50 proposed [specialists] for
training, this works out to GH¢9,637,824 for four years”.
It was based on this memo that Vice President Mahama got the
Finance Ministry to release money for this programme. This was
his “pet project” so he cannot feign ignorance today. What is
alarming is the fact that armed with all the information the
President still went ahead to say publicly that training
doctors in Ghana was more expensive.
We really don’t get the President. At his IEA encounter last
month he, without prompting, defended his decision to give rlg,
a model Ghanaian computer firm, the contract to supply laptops
for education. He said, “even if it is more expensive it is
better to give it to a Ghanaian company so we can build
Ghanaian enterprises.”
So how come it is cheaper to train doctors here and yet the
President will neglect our medical schools to spend more money
to send some students abroad rather than investing that money
to expand the capacity of our medical schools and train even
more students? Our medical schools insist that with the needed
funds they can train a lot more students than they are doing
now.
WHY ARE NAMIBIANS PAYING FAR LESS?
Ladies and Gentlemen, we have evidence to show that Ghana has
been severely shortchanged by this deal. A similar controversy
with the training of medical students in Cuba occurred in
Namibia where the cost was condemned as too high. But, the
Namibian rate is even far cheaper than what President John
Mahama did for Ghana.
This similar medical co-operation deal negotiated by the
Namibian government with Cuba for the training of 100 doctors
leaves no doubt how President Mahama has recklessly treated
our resources and the taxpayer’s money.
On the 2nd of October, the government of Namibia announced
that the Namibian taxpayer will fork out N$70 million
(US$8,029,754.84) to finance the training of 100 doctors in
Cuba over six years. Under the agreement, Namibia has to pay
N$705,000 (US$80,871.10) to train one doctor in Cuba for the
six years.
(Read what Namibia pays)
In Ghana, however, we are being forced by this NDC government
to pay US$152,000. This is almost twice what the Namibians are
paying and even begrudgingly!
Again, comparing the two deals, the cost of training one
Namibian doctor in Cuba would cost US$13,748.52 or GH¢26,957.03
and the cost of doing the same thing for a Ghanaian student in
Cuba is US$25,330.06 or GH¢50,660.12 per annum. This figure
may even be more now for us, considering the drop in the local
currency.
President Mahama must explain to Ghanaians why we are paying
much more than the Namibians are. Or is it just the case that
in President John Dramani Mahama, Ghana has a very bad
negotiator? That’s why we maintain that the President cannot
be trusted to protect the public purse.
WHAT IT COSTS TO TRAIN DOCTORS IN GHANA
At the University of Ghana Medical School, foreign students
pay US$10,000 per year. Graduate students pay US$12,000. Fee
paying Ghanaians pay US$6000. At the School of Medical
Sciences, KNUST, foreign students pay US$7,000 and fee-paying
Ghanaians pay US$2,500. Whichever way you look at this, it is
much cheaper to train our people at home where they can get
better tuition because there is no language barrier among
other things.
WHAT THE NPP WILL DO DIFFERENTLY
The NPP has a solid track record in the health delivery
sector. In our 8 years in office, we, for example, increased
intake for Diploma Nurses, from 968 in 2000 to 7,068 in 2008.
Community Health Nursing intake increased from 500 to 2,214 in
2008. To improve SKILL-MIX in the nursing profession, the
health care assistant training program was established and a
number of Health Assistant Training Institutions were also put
up across the country. Intake into such institutions increased
from 477 in 2006 to 2,541 in 2008. This did not happen by
accident.
In line with the vision of the Presidential Candidate of the
New Patriotic Party, Nana Akufo-Addo, the priority of the next
NPP government when, God willing, we win the December
elections will be to train our doctors locally.
The NPP finds the shortage of doctors in the health delivery
systems disturbing. The average doctor/patient ratio of 1:
10,000 in Ghana is far below the standard set by the World
Health Organization (WHO), whose figure is pegged at 1:5,000.
To meet present requirements Ghana needs 48,000 doctors and
with the three medical schools producing less than 400 doctors
in a year it will take at least 100 years to meet present
standards. There is the need to expand existing medical
schools and also establish new ones.
We will expand existing medical schools and also establish a
national institute for biomedical sciences where medical
students will have their basic sciences courses. At the same
time, regional hospitals will be equipped to enable them
provide clinical training for graduates from the National
Biomedical Institute.
In addition, we will construct new Regional and Specialist
Hospitals and upgrade all existing Regional Hospitals and
accredit them to take on more students in clinical training.
We shall fund local postgraduate medical and other health
staff training to build the requisite and qualified staff to
handle all faculties.
We will rather invest in our medical schools to train a lot
more doctors here in Ghana. It is also important to scale up
the training of Physician Assistants (PA) who will take up
some of the load from the routine of doctors.
Also, the private sector will be encouraged to establish
health training institutions, including medical schools.
Let us vote out the NDC to protect the public purse and keep
our nation healthy. Let us vote for the NPP, Change Now! Move
Ghana Forward!
FOR ANY FURTHER CLARIFICATION PLEASE CONTACT THE FOLLOWING
MEMBERS OF THE NPP CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE ON HEALTH:-
• PROF K FRIMPONG BOATENG – 0244310049
• DR RICHARD ANANE – 0244326654
• DR NSIAH ASARE – 0202022159
• DR MATHEW PREMPEH – 0244561888
• MR RAS BOATENG - 0509044013
• MS AFIA APPIAH - 0264390345
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