Cancel contract of mechanic who used ambulance to carry cement – Dr. Okoe-Boye

• Posted on June 4, 2021June 4, 2021
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

A former Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Bernard Okoe-Boye, has called for severe punishment for the mechanic who was caught using a state ambulance to carry cement.

The former lawmaker for Ledzokuku told TV3’s Johnnie Hughes on the New Day on Wednesday June 2 that the failure to punish such a person will serve as an incentive to others who are also handling the other ambulances to do same or even worse.

The National Ambulance Service has revealed that mechanics repairing their ambulance used it to purchase cement as was captured in a video that went viral on social media.

A statement issued on Tuesday, June 1, 2021, by the Ambulance Service said the incident happened on March 26, 2021.

“The Ambulance is still in the custody of Service Ghana Autogroup Ltd., and therefore not being used by the paramedics of the National Ambulance Service. It is thus not part of the National Ambulance Service Fleet”, the statement said.

The Public Relations Officer of the National Ambulance Service, Mr Simon Yusif Kawula in media interviews said “The investigation we did revealed that this particular ambulance was being used by the mechanics of the suppliers. It is an ambulance under the 1 Constituency 1 Ambulance, and it is stationed at Sege.

“This ambulance developed a gearbox problem, so it was sent to the suppliers, so they also gave it to their mechanics at Mamprobi called Nana Ofosu Gearbox enterprise. After they fixed the problem and were doing a test drive, they drove to the Mallam – Cape Coast highway, and that was when they went to purchase cement.

“It was not the staff of the Ambulance Service who were using the ambulance at that time, but rather the mechanics,” he explained.

Commenting on this development, Dr Okoe-Boye said “I wasn’t surprised when I saw this because if you know human nature people can be very reckless or indiscipline if there is no threats of punishment. I expect whichever garage the gentleman works with to sanction the individual who did this and the public must know that either he has lost his job or they have taken away that  contract of servicing.

“If the whole company loses this contract because of the attitude of this guy  whichever company handles the other ambulances  will make sure that it is  strictly monitored  when it comes into their hands.

This is of one of the few instances that you realize that there are people in this country who don’t care  about what happens to the country, it is about them, they want to fix their home , they want to build their house  even if they have to use an ambulance to carry stones they don’t care.”

By Laud Nartey