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The Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has accused contractors of the Lightwave Health Information Management System (LHIMS) of blackmail and gross underperformance, as the government rolls out a new platform to manage national health data. Unveiling the Ghana Health Information Management System (GHIMS) at the Government Accountability Series in Accra on Wednesday, October 29, Mr. Akandoh said the new system replaces LHIMS, which had failed to meet expectations despite heavy state investment. “Ghanaians will never go back to the manual way. We are moving forward responsibly, confidently, and decisively,” the Minister declared. “At this point, I would want to share with you the facts — nothing but the facts — as we inherited.” According to him, the $100 million contract for LHIMS was signed in 2019 with Lightwave to connect 950 health facilities nationwide. The project was initially slated for completion in 2022 but suffered two extensions — to 2023 and later to December 31, 2024 — due to persistent delays. Despite the extensions, Mr. Akandoh said only 450 facilities were connected by the project’s expiration, though over $77 million, representing more than 70% of the total cost, had already been paid. “A contract meant for three years was extended to five years, yet less than half the work was done. Clearly, the company underperformed,” he stated. The Minister further revealed that a forensic audit of the project exposed irregularities in the hardware component, citing shortfalls in equipment quantity and substandard quality. “Where HP laptops were supposed to be supplied, cheaper brands were delivered. If the contract said 100 computers, fewer were supplied. The hardware gap alone was not less than $18 million,” he disclosed. Mr. Akandoh also raised alarm over data sovereignty, noting that Ghana’s sensitive health data had been hosted on foreign servers. “It is unconscionable for any company to have access to the electronic medical records of Ghanaians without the state having control. With the cloud infrastructure built somewhere in India, we had to act,” he stressed. The Ministry, he said, has since referred the matter to the Attorney-General’s Department and other security agencies for further investigation and action. Meanwhile, disruptions in the LHIMS platform have forced some hospitals to temporarily revert to manual record-keeping, while the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has reported intermittent service downtimes. Mr. Akandoh assured that the new GHIMS system would restore stability and ensure continuity of service delivery. “As a Ministry, our concern was to find a solution to this mess. Even though we didn’t have a contract with the vendor at the time, we were ready to sign a maintenance agreement to sustain the 450 facilities. But the software itself was not owned by the state — that is why it was called Lightwave Health Information Management System. We are now taking full control,” he concluded.
