Attempted inflation of outstanding balance of the Afari Military Hospital project by over $84.5 million has sparked a sharp rebuttal from former Defence Minister and former Chairman of the Ministry of Defence Project Implementation Unit, Mr Kofi Amankwa-Manu, who has dismissed claims made by Deputy Defence Minister, Mr Brogya Genfi, regarding the status and funding of the project.
Mr Amankwa-Manu described the assertions as “factually inaccurate” and a “calculated attempt to siphon $85 million from the public,” insisting that the project’s progress and financial position had been deliberately misrepresented.
He was responding to a Facebook post attributed to Mr Genfi on Thursday, June 11, 2026, which claimed that government was “working tirelessly to salvage the Afari Military Hospital Project” and indicated that the facility was “60% overall complete, with civil and architectural works at 97% but biomedical and mechanical installations at only 5%.”
However, addressing the Parliamentary Press Corps in Accra, the Atwima Kwanwoma MP dismissed the 60% completion figure as “a complete fabrication,” insisting that official Ministry of Defence Project Implementation Unit records as of September 2024 put overall completion at 92.5%.
He detailed project progress as follows: civil works at 97.5%, architectural works at 87%, staff housing at 77%, roads at 80%, and landscaping at 77%.
Mr Amankwa-Manu further stated that by January 2025, under the previous NPP administration, overall completion had reached 98%.
He also rejected claims that contractor Eurojet/Ejvat was demanding $85 million to return to site, describing the situation as a “manufactured crisis.”
According to him, the original contract sum of $180 million had already been fully paid. He added that an additional $19.3 million claim arising from delays linked to relocation under the previous NDC administration had also been settled.
He further explained that a subsequent claim initially pegged at $6.5 million was negotiated down to $3 million, of which $2.5 million had been paid, leaving an outstanding balance of $500,000 — “not $85 million.”
“The jump from $500,000 to $85 million is not just mathematically absurd, it is criminal,” he stated.
Mr Amankwa-Manu traced delays in the project to its relocation under the NDC administration after its initial award in 2008 under former President John Agyekum Kufuor for Kumasi, before being moved first to Tamale and later to Afari.
He said the relocation caused a six-year delay and led to contractor claims of $36 million, later negotiated down to $19.3 million.
He noted that by December 2016, when the NDC left office, the project was only 40% complete after eight years of construction activity that began in 2014.
The MP, who is also Deputy Ranking Member of Parliament’s Defence and Interior Committee, maintained that his intervention was aimed at “exposing a grand scheme of deception” and clarifying the true status of the Afari Military Hospital project.
