Two of the ten personalities accused of registering and offering to manage the $217million uncompleted University of Ghana Medical Centre in their names have described the claim as mischievous.
Ex-UG Vice-Chancellor Professor Ernest Aryeetey and former Deputy Health Minister Robert Joseph Mettle Nunoo have both said the Health Minister and his Deputy are uninformed about the controversy surrounding the facility.
Prof Aryeetey told Joy FM’s Emefa Apawu Tuesday, the University of Ghana Board duly sanctioned the establishment of a private entity to take over the management of the facility.
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As the Vice Chancellor at the time, he and one Professor Nii Lantey Lawson, were asked to represent the school on the company’s Board of Directors, he said.
“There is nothing that stopped the University of Ghana from deciding how the board of the company should be structured and composed,” he said, adding claims of conflict of interest situation is not a valid one.
Prof Aryeetey, Mr Mettle Nunoo and eight others have been accused of registering a company that is laying claim to the management of the Medical Centre built with a loan secured by the past government.
But the Deputy Health Minister Kingsley Aboagye-Gyedu said documents from the Registrar General’s Department show Professor Aryeetey is on the company’s board in his personal capacity and not in the capacity as a Vice Chancellor.
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“What prevented him from registering there as the Vice Chancellor of the University?” he asked Evans Mensah on Joy FM’s Top Story, claiming there are many unanswered questions.
Deputy Health Minister Kingsley Aboagye-Gyedu
Mr Aboagye-Gyedu also questioned Mr Mettle Nunoo’s capacity on the company’s Board since he was not the Deputy Health Minister at the time the private company was incorporated.
But the two in separate interviews have accused the Deputy Health Minister of attempting to disparage their reputation, saying their membership on the company’s Board was sanctioned by the past administration and University Board.
Prof Aryeetey said the Deputy Health Minister’s position on the matter is a “very illiterate one.”
“If I had a personal interest then you can talk about it [because] the name we used was a special purpose vehicle,” he added.
On his part, Mr Mettle Nunoo told Accra-based TV3 Mr Aboagye-Gyedu is not “sufficiently informed” on the matter to proffer good counsel to Cabinet.
He said the then Finance Minister Seth Terkper was involved in the arrangement and put in place strategies for the $217million loan taken for the construction of the Centre to be paid back.