General News of Tuesday, 23 January 2018
Source: Graphic.com.gh
2018-01-23
Prof Ernest Aryeetey, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana
The Former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana (UG), Prof Ernest Aryeetey, has dismissed claims that he connived with two others to register the UG Medical Centre Limited, the company that was set up to manage the university’s hospital, in their names.
Contrary to allegations that he, Prof Aaron Nii Lante Lawson and Rojo Mettle Nunoo, a former Deputy Minister of Health, appropriated the company and the hospital to themselves, Prof Aryeetey told the Daily Graphic today (Jan 23) that the three of them only acted as founding directors of the company in requirement of rules governing the registration of limited liabilities in the country.
Their action, he said was also sanctioned by UG Governing Council at the time, which authorised them to register the UG Medical Centre as a special purpose vehicle to manage the 650-bed hospital.
As a result, he said the company was solely registered in the name of the University of Ghana and not in the names of individuals as had been alleged by current leadership of the Health Ministry.
“When you are registering a company, by law, you have to provide names of at least, three people, to serve as directors. The names that were approved by the UG Council was myself, Prof Lawson as the project manager and later the interim CEO, and Mr Nunoo, who was nominated by the Ministry of Health (MoH), as directors of the company and not owners of the company.”
“The appointment was for the registration, and after the registration, the UG Council established the board of directors for the company. I was appointed to chair the board until I resigned on November 24, 2017,” he said.
The University Council after signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the government to manage the hospital decided to establish a private company to be owned by the university to serve the purpose rather than placing it under a department of the university.
In accordance with this directive, the then UG lawyer, Ms Akyaa Afreh Arhin commenced and completed the process of registering the new company under the companies Act 1963(ACT 179) as a limited liability company solely owned by the University of Ghana.
Allegation
A Deputy Minister of Health, Kingsley Aboagye-Gyedu, accused the former university professor of registering the medical facility in his name together with Prof. Aaron Nii Lante Lawson and Rojo Mettle Nunoo.
“It will shock Ghanaians to hear that a limited liability company such as the facility has been registered in the names of Rojo Mettle Nunoo, Prof. Ernest Aryeetey and one Prof. Aaron Nii Lante Lawson in their respective names”, Mr Aboagye-Gyedu told the media.
UG medical centre
The newly built UG hospital, christened the UG Medical Centre was completed and inaugurated by the Mahama-led government in November 2016 at a cost of about US$217 million, consisting of 350 beds, ultra-modern medical gadgets for treating complicated medical conditions, and a helipad to airlift emergency cases, as well as a medical hotel.
The project began in 2012 when the government signed a contract with Messrs. Engineering and Development Consultant (EDC) of Israel to build the first phase of the facility and hand it over to the university.