Health Workers Sign In and Go Home for Want of Desks, Bong Health Chief Says at Groundbreaking

Published: August 5, 2026

MELEKIE, Bong County — Staff at the Bong County Health Team have been signing the attendance register and going home because there is nowhere for them to sit, and some departments have been moved into the emergency room to keep working, the county’s chief health officer said Friday as the Ministry of Health broke ground on an office complex costing more than US$700,000.

Twenty-three departments now share a seven-room building, said Dr. Daanue Paye, Bong County health officer, who took the post in August last year. In some offices, he said, five departments share three desks.

“When I assumed office in August last year, we inherited a building with only seven rooms occupied by about 23 departments,” Paye said. “In some offices, five departments share just three desks. As a result, some staff would come to work, sign in and leave because there was nowhere for them to sit and work.”

The ministry has not said [who won the construction contract, how it was procured, from which budget line the money comes, or when the building is due to be completed].

Paye said the money now in hand will not finish the job and asked Bong County’s legislative caucus and private donors to close the gap.

“Although our budget from the Ministry is small and the Minister has pledged to increase it, we still need assistance from our lawmakers and well-meaning individuals,” he said. “When completed, this project will finally address the accommodation challenges that have affected the county health team for years.”

Paye credited Deputy Minister for Administration Martha C. Morris with pushing the project through the ministry, and Morris said she had done so.

“I knew the county health team was operating from a congested building, and that is why I lobbied within the Ministry to ensure this project became a reality,” Morris said.

Morris said the ministry has bought a bus for the county health team, and said she expects a guest house to be built beside the new office for Ministry of Health officials and other visitors posted to Bong County. She did not say what the bus cost or what the guest house would cost.

Morris also announced at the ceremony that the government has secured 50 acres for the expansion of C.B. Dunbar Comprehensive Hospital, with work expected to start later this year.

Bong County Administrative Officer Sam Elliott said the investment was timely and urged residents of the host community to cooperate with the contractors.