Hon. Kingsley Agyemang, Member of Parliament (MP) for Abuakwa South and member of the Parliamentary Health Committee, has issued a scathing critique of the government’s fiscal management, accusing the administration of “playing politics with the economy,” while over 6,500 healthcare professionals remain unpaid for nearly a year.
Hon. Agyemang’s condemnation comes amid a growing crisis in the health sector, where essential workers – despite being captured in the 2025 national budget – have reportedly rendered eleven months of service without receiving their due compensation.
“It’s very unfortunate and I sincerely sympathize and empathize with our health workers. We can’t continue on with this as a nation. How do you feel as an individual when you have worked for 11 months and there’s nothing to show for it?”
Hon. Kingsley Agyemang, Member of Parliament’s Health Committee
The Abuakwa South legislator framed the situation as a catastrophic failure of governance, questioning the moral and legal standing of a state that engages its workforce without ensuring the basic right to remuneration.
For Hon. Agyemang, the plight of these workers is not merely an administrative oversight but a reflection of a poor “reset agenda,” that has failed to prioritize the very human capital required to sustain the nation’s health and wealth under the NDC government.
A central pillar of Hon. Agyemang’s critique rested on the significant gap between the government’s budgetary promises and its actual financial releases. He revealed that despite the high-stakes estimates presented for the 2025 health budget, the actual funds reaching the Ministry of Health and its various agencies have been woefully inadequate.
According to the MP, the data indicates that only about 64 percent of the allocated releases have materialized, a shortfall that directly explains the inability to clear the massive salary backlog.
“When we say the government is not spending, people think we’re playing politics with it. But look at the health budget of 2025. If you are not spending and you are playing politics with the economy, it’s very unfortunate”
Hon. Kingsley Agyemang, Member of Parliament’s Health Committee
Hon. Agyemang argued that this fiscal posturing effectively treats essential health services as a discretionary expense rather than a non-negotiable priority.
He warned that such a strategy is unsustainable, particularly when the survival of thousands of families depends on the timely payment of these professionals who continue to report to work daily.
Misplaced Priorities
Beyond the technicalities of budget releases, Hon. Agyemang pointed to a more profound issue: the perceived misalignment of national priorities. He drew a sharp contrast between the government’s willingness to fund luxury acquisitions and secondary infrastructure projects while frontline health workers are left in financial limbo.
Specifically, he questioned the logic of pursuing multi-billion-dollar infrastructure, such as the new Kumasi express road and the procurement of presidential jets, at the expense of human lives, and accused the government of not prioritizing the Health Sector properly.
“If it was a priority this wouldn’t be the situation – where the health worker has not been paid,” he lamented. This disparity, Hon. Agyemang argued, sends a demoralizing message to the health workforce.
He warned that “expecting excellence and consistent service delivery,” from unmotivated, unpaid workers is unrealistic. The MP emphasized that the current “posturing,” of the state suggests a disregard for the Ghanaian worker, characterized by an attitude of indifference toward those providing essential services.
Concluding his assessment, Hon. Agyemang linked the current crisis to the long-term prosperity of the nation.
He argued that any policy aimed at economic growth is doomed to fail if the workforce responsible for the population’s health is neglected. By treating healthcare access as a secondary concern, the government is effectively creating a barrier to national development.
“We have to begin to realign our priorities as a nation because I always say that you can’t play politics with the health of the nation – because our wealth is the status of our health. You can come up with a lot of policies but if you don’t have a very healthy population – it all goes down the drain”
Hon. Kingsley Agyemang, Member of Parliament’s Health Committee
As the 6,500 health workers continue their engagements and protests, Hon. Agyemang’s call for an urgent realignment of the national budget serves as a reminder that the status of Ghana’s health sector is an inextricable component of its economic survival.
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