The Parliamentary Select Committee on Health visited several mosquito breeding grounds in the Bono Region and urged Zoomlion Ghana Limited (ZGL) to intensify its immature mosquito larvae management program to contribute to the battle against malaria in the nation.
The call was made by Dr. Nana Ayew Afriyie, chair of the Health Committee of Parliament, during an inspection tour of some breeding sites in the Berekum Municipality, Bono Region, on Wednesday, March 1, 2023. "Despite the gradual reduction of malaria cases from 19,000 to 21,000 and 16,000 in 2020, 2021, and 2022, respectively, in the Berekum Municipality, we believe a lot of work needs to be done as well," she said.
The trip allowed the committee to learn firsthand about the Vector Control Services of ZGL's larval control spraying operation, which targets young mosquitoes that may be forming in stagnant water.
The committee members' decisions on whether to accept or reject the project's budget will be influenced by the information provided by the visit, which was also required.
Dr. Ayew Afriyie, head of the Parliamentary Health Committee, spoke to the press following an inspection visit of a few breeding sites in the Berekum Municipality and explained that the committee had chosen to travel to the region to assess the degree of progress being made on the project.
In his words, "We are here to give supervision and observe how the public dollars are being utilized when it comes to larvicidal management of malaria.
"We need to approve the budget." Typically, we would state that the National Health Insurance Authority will be established within the next two to three weeks. Larvicidal or vector control of malaria is one of the things we wanted to see before we approved the budget. A private corporation will often receive our approval throughout the year, which is fantastic. We can all agree that PPPs are a popular way to finance healthcare practices today, he continued.
Also, Dr. Afriyie, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Effiduase Asokoroe, requested that Zoomlion works with additional National Malaria Control Program workers (NMCP).
He emphasized that NCMP was a component of Zoomlion's larval control operation and said that, despite the NMCP's responsibility to keep an eye on Zoomlion's operations, "it appears that there is a disengagement between the NMCP and the corporation."
He stated unequivocally that it was the committee's duty to guarantee value for money when these contracts were given to commercial organizations.
"So, while we may be seeing outcomes, scientifically speaking, we need to put a lot of things on paper so that when we come in here, we can look at it as a matrix and make informed decisions," Nonetheless, he added, "Overall, we need the community to have value for money.
Dr. Ayew Afriyie made the point that the project had problems that needed to be fixed.
These, he said, included the requirement for Zoomlion to have a plan for the exercise as well as the fact that some of the mapped-out breeding locations did not receive constant and effective spraying.
Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, the MP for Juaboso and ranking member of the committee, requested that Zoomlion take a close look at the size and well-being of its spraying staff because this might negatively affect the project's outcome.
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