Prez Mahama exposed over Cuban deal

President John Mahama has sparked a serious controversy on the actual cost being borne by government in training 250 Ghanaian medical students in Cuba in a deal he brokered last year.

According to the president, the cost of training of each of the Ghanaians in Cuba is $5,000 (GHC10 million) instead of the GHC50, 000 per year being quoted by various sources including government documents.

Government has quoted GHC50,000 with cabinet memos putting the entire deal to GHC60 million.

The president's submission has drawn extreme discomfort from the Ghana Medical Association (GMA).

Dr. Kwabena Opoku Adu-sei, President of GMA, told Daily Guide in a telephone conversation on yesterday evening, “The figures don't tally, somebody is not telling the truth.

“There were figures before the debate and you look at those figures and you look at what His Excellency said then it means there is something wrong somewhere.”

The discrepancy emerged at the widely publicized Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Presidential Debate held in Tamale on Tuesday.

President Mahama was compelled to come clean with the actual figures involved in the Ghana-Cuban medical training deal.

Mid May this year, the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG), a pro NPP pressure group, blew the lid on the health care deal when government sources were cited as concluding plans to commit approximately GHC50,000 per annum to train each of the 250 medical students.

President Mahama, who was caught in a back and forth banter with the NPP candidate during the health care session of the debate, explained that the cost for training the medical personnel in Cuba was $5,000 (approximately GHC10,000), instead of the GHC50,000 a year that had been widely quoted.

“The cost of training one child under the Cuban arrangement is $5,000, far lower than the cost of training in our medical school here and so we had to take that opportunity,” President Mahama explained.

A “secret” cabinet memo from former Health Minister Joseph Yieleh Chireh, dated August 18, 2011, which was approved by Chief of Staff John Henry Martey Newman, gave evidence of government officials justifying an amount of Cuc30,750.00, or an equivalent of GHC50,660.12 to train Ghanaian High School graduates as medical students in Cuba.

In the arrangement elaborated by the former Minister of Health, it would cost the nation GHC 10,132, 024.00 to train 200 students to study medicine in Cuba each year and approximately GHC 60.80 million for the next six years (the total duration of the study).

Also in the arrangement, an amount of GHC48,189 would be spent on another 50 students per annum to receive specialist training in that country.

In total, the government of Ghana is expected to spend approximately GHC74.35million on the project.

Information gathered by Daily Guide indicates that for the first year, 2012, Ghana is expected to spend about GHC14. 50milion as the first tranche of payment.