Manhyia North Member of Parliament (MP) and member of Parliament’s Health Committee, Akwasi Konadu, has criticised the decision by the Ministry of Health to seek Cabinet approval for the payment of health professionals’ arrears and employment clearances.
This follows Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh’s claim that the government had secured financial clearance for the employment of health professionals and the settlement of their arrears.
During a press briefing on October 13, the Health Minister announced that Cabinet had approved clearance for recruitment and arrears payments across multiple health professional categories, including doctors, nurses and pharmacists.
However, at a counter press conference, Dr. Nana Ayew Afriyie, Ranking Member on the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health and MP for Effiduase-Asokore, challenged the Minister’s assertion. He claimed that the previous administration’s financial clearance for recruitment expired on December 31, 2024, and that the current government had failed to renew it.
Dr. Afriyie further stated that although the previous government allocated funds to recruit 15,000 health workers, only 7,000 to 8,000 were engaged before the change in administration. He asserted that the remaining positions were filled directly by the Ghana Health Service, despite the lapsed clearances.
The Minority faction accused the government of misleading the public and demanded clarity on the actual status of financial clearance and arrears payments. They argued that since funds were already allocated, there was no valid reason to seek new Cabinet approval.
Speaking on Channel One Newsroom on Tuesday, October 14, Konadu emphasised that a prudent government should have included the health sector workers in its 2025 budget from the outset, instead of addressing them later for political convenience.
“A prudent government every year makes a budget and ought to have included these individuals in it in 2025 because the budget ought to have accommodated for them,” he said.
“You did not do that. You left them for political expediency that will create a certain level of agitation in the system, which you could have blamed on the erstwhile NPP government. That is not going to fly this time around.”
Konadu went on to condemn the decision to take the matter to Cabinet, suggesting it exposes a political mindset in dealing with the health workforce.
“So we are telling the minister: going for Cabinet approval is a no-no. It obviously tells us that you are in a certain political mindset of how you wanted to deal with the situation,” he said.
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