Senior Lecturer and Political Scientist at the University of Ghana, Dr Joshua Zaato, has criticised Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh for what he described as poor management of the transition from the Lightwave Health Information Management System (LHIMS) to the new Ghana Health Information Management System (GHIMS).
Speaking on JoyNews’ AM Show, Dr Zaato questioned why the Minister failed to implement interim measures to prevent disruptions in health data services after assuming office.
“You cannot be a ranking member of health and say that you didn’t know this thing existed. You came into office and saw it — what did you do to alleviate the situation?” he asked.
“An effective manager would have put in stopgap measures to ensure there were no disruptions.”
Dr. Zaato’s comments come after the Health Minister accused the company managing LHIMS of blackmailing the government by deliberately disrupting the system to pressure the ministry into removing key clauses from a new agreement.
At the Government Accountability Series on Wednesday, October 29, Mr Akandoh claimed that the maintenance contract with the LHIMS vendor required the company to hand over full administrative access and data control to the government — conditions the vendor allegedly resisted.
He added that the government was developing GHIMS, a new state-owned digital health platform, to ensure “data sovereignty” and prevent similar disruptions in future.
But Dr Zaato believes the situation reflects managerial lapses within the Health Ministry.
“If the contract was ending in 2024, it means by the time you assumed office, it was already over. So what did you do? Why wasn’t there a contingency plan?” he argued.