Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh has disclosed that infractions found in the previous government’s Lightwave Health Information Management System (LHIMS) contract have been forwarded to the Attorney General for review and further action.
Speaking on Wednesday, October 29, at the Government Accountability Series, Mr. Akandoh stated that the ministry’s investigations had found serious anomalies in the way the contract with Lightwave Health Information Management System was carried out.
He claims that even though the contractor only completed half of the intended health institution connections, they were still paid more than 77 million dollars, or more than 70% of the entire contract amount.
“Since we began this journey, all stakeholders have been on board. From the CEO’s of the teaching hospitals, the medical superintendent, EOCO, the Attorney General, Minister for Communication, everybody has been on board. So the issue of legality and security issues has been referred to the Attorney General for advice and appropriate action,” he stated.
Mr. Akandoh further revealed that the Lightwave contract never received Parliamentary approval.
“It was never a contract considered by Parliament,” he revealed.
He added that the vendor failed to act in good faith, making any effort to renegotiate the agreement difficult.
“They acted in bad faith,” he said.
The Minister also disclosed that the government had requested Lightwave to hand over control of the system and its infrastructure to the state, as required by the contract. However, complications emerged because the system was hosted on a cloud infrastructure in India, limiting Ghana’s control over the platform.
The Minister clarified that in order to replace the broken system and guarantee continuity in healthcare delivery throughout the nation, the government has since acquired a new platform called the Ghana Healthcare Information Management System (GHIMS).