Suspicion of Corruption, As Agenda 111 Designs Sole-Sourced To National Cathedral Architect

A Ghanaian architect and whistleblower has revealed that the company of UK-based Sir David Adjaye has been sole-sourced to undertake the architectural designs for the district hospital projects that the government is undertaking under the Agenda 111 program.

This revelation is coming despite the fact that the Estate Management Unit of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) had long ago engaged a consultant who developed a standard modular health facility architecture concept for Ghana.

The existing designs at the GHS have even won admiration from the World Health Organisation (WHO) which proposed that the model should be used across Africa due to its well-thought-out designs.

In a write-up, Mr. Tony Asare, the whistleblowing architect also alleges that the duplicitous sole sourcing did not follow standard procedures required by the law.

“The question, therefore, remains, why does the government decide to single-source these projects without recourse to Section 40 of the Procurement Law?” Mr. Asare wrote, adding, I join my colleague architects to say we are seriously concerned with the consistent abuse of Section 40 Procurement Act, without conscience and no attempt to equitably and legally go through the process for local architects who also make a living. There are about 1,200 architects in Ghana and we are not incompetent,” Mr. Asare stated.

The unhappy local architect points out that he is just one of the over 1,000 Ghanaian architects who are unhappy about the preferential treatment given Adjaye and Associates.

He points out that the current round of sole-sourcing of Adjaye and Associates follows an earlier one in which the same company had been sole-sourced to design the controversial National Cathedral.

And for Mr. Asare, this latest vandalism of national procurement laws to favour Adjaye and Associates not only insults the competence of local engineers but probably also overlooks plagiarism on the part of Adjaye and Associates.

He writes that the architectural designs that the celebrated architect has been sole-sourced to produce, apparently, already exist and have long been at the Project Implementation Unit of the Ministry of Health.

Asare wrote: “For those of us in Architecture, we know that there are model District Hospitals designs already. Did we have to redesign a District Hospital Model again? We know that the Project Implementation Unit (PIU) of the Ghana Health Service has had a few District Hospitals models with specifications and so I rhetorically asked if there was any serious reason why this could not be adapted.”

“….the Project Implementation Unit of Ghana Health Service has in their custody designs models of District Hospitals and some have been built. The form is quite simple; a spine for circulation and appendages that spring out of the spine into functional various areas; wards, surgical theatres, etc. Indeed, there are aerial photographs of hospitals built in various places in Ghana. He has stated in his write-up to this design that the philosophy behind the concept is a crocodile in form. Many of us doubt this. We expect more from a strong man. We expect this to be interrogated dispassionately.”

He admits that the design may have been reviewed with its specifications upgraded, adding in that case that a need for justification of the decision to get Adjaye and Associates to redesign the model designs was needed.

“ If we had this already in our kitty the next question would be whether there was a need to redesign this for the huge sums of money to be paid when Ghana is in dire straits?”

The Ghanaian architect however does not spare Mr. Adjaye some of the blame, pointing out that if even the government of Ghana has been shoddy in its implementation of procurement laws, as a knighted architect, his stature demands that he ensured that his company insisted on due process.

“It is expected that even if the political leadership missed the opportunity to respond positively to our procurement processes and laws, for such an architect of such repute, he should have the structures to pull the plug. Did his legal aids investigate to find out if the project had gone through the legal procurement process? Or did he just welcome a project handed to him because after all, it was an opportunity for more accolades and money,” Asare questioned.

Meanwhile, in 2018, the World Health Organisation (WHO) identified the Shai Osudoku District Hospital at Ayikuma as a benchmark for other health facilities in Africa because of the practical architecture and engineering work that went into its design.

The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, said the hospital had set a standard that was worth emulating nationwide and in Africa.

This facility is unique and is setting the standard for the region and I am so impressed about everything here,” she said.