The Member of Parliament for South Dayi Constituency, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, says it will be a waste of taxpayers’ monies to procure drones for the supply of essential medicines.
He argues that even Ghana’s telecommunication system is not user-friendly for the technology especially when it is going to depend on SMS, WhatsApp and phone calls.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP made this known while on TV3’s New Day on Wednesday, December 5.
On Tuesday, November 6, clearance was given by the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) for government to sole-source the contract to US-based firm Messrs Zipline International Inc.
The firm was to design, install and operate unmanned aerial vehicles, the drones, at the cost of $12,527,000 for four years.
But on Monday, December 3, when the deal was tabled before Parliament by the Select Committee on Health, the Minority raised concerns and initially threatened to boycott deliberations.
The NDC members described the contract amount as outrageous.
Speaking on the programme, Mr Dafeamekpor said it seems “those who even drafted the deal do not know the local terrain”.
He described the whole deal as “completely unacceptable”.
“I would rather prefer that we buy motor bikes…that are fixed with carrier containers.”
For him, the motor bikes will do the delivery in quicker time than the drones.
But his points were disagreed with by Kofi Ameyaw, a member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Communications Team. He was also on the show.
He said the government should rather be commended for such an “innovative way of health delivery”.
“If they are saying there is no value for money, they should give us alternatives.”
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana