Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh has revealed that the previous administration failed to make budgetary provisions for more than 13,000 nurses and midwives recruited in 2024.
His comments come in response to accusations from the Minority in Parliament that he misled health professionals regarding the status of financial clearances and salary payments.
The Minority contends that the previous government had already made budgetary allocations and has accused the current administration of failing to extend the financial clearance on time.
They argue that the Minister’s decision to seek Cabinet approval is unnecessary and merely an attempt to conceal delays in resolving the matter.
The Minister explained that although clearance was granted in 2024 for the recruitment of about 13,500 nurses and midwives, no corresponding budget was made to cover their salaries.
“The reality is that in 2024, the government started to recruit nurses and midwives. So the summary is that they recruited about 13,500 nurses and midwives and issued clearance,” he said.
He made these remarks in an interview on Accra-based Channel One TV on Wednesday, October 15.
“Once you issue clearance, you must make financial provision. Clearance is not just a paper… You issue clearance when indeed you can pay when you recruit the people.”
According to Mr. Akandoh, although the clearance was granted, it expired before the recruits were added to the payroll.
“The clearance expired on December 31. What it means is that before the expiration, you must necessarily have all these 13,500 people on the payroll. As of the end of 31st December 2024, not a single one of the 13,500 people were on the payroll,” he added.
He revealed that the newly recruited nurses began work around August 2024 but were not captured in the budget, leaving the current administration with limited options.
“When we came, there were two options available because there was no allocation for these nurses and midwives. One—let them go home and look for the funding and extend the clearance and then they come and work. Two—you can allow them to work while you look at how you will pay them, because that was not captured as part of our budget,” he explained.
The Minister noted that his outfit, in collaboration with the Finance Ministry, has since worked to gradually integrate the affected nurses and midwives onto the payroll.
“I have been collaborating with the Minister responsible for Finance, and out of the 13,500, we managed to put about 7,000 of them on the payroll. So half of them were being paid,” he said.
“The reality is that we captured about 10,000 of them on the payroll, but only 7,000 were being paid. Some of them have received payments from March thereabouts. We were onboarding them gradually.”
Mr. Akandoh said the situation later became more complicated as additional financial obligations surfaced.
“It got to a time that we realised that there were a lot of things—more than even the 13,500 nurses they had recruited. There were arrears of allowances; there were conditions of services that had been signed and they were not implemented… So it was like the budget was becoming much bigger,” he said.
He explained that his ministry had to return to the Cabinet for financial approval to prevent budget overruns.
“So we realised that if we don’t go back to Cabinet, it will throw the budget off,” the Minister stated.
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