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Mr Samuel Atta Akyea, Minister of Works and Housing on Wednesday said the Saglemi housing project in the Ningo-Prampram District in the Greater Accra Region has serious challenges resulting in the halt of the project.
He said the necessary information including measurement and financials issues have been referred to the Attorney’s General Department for advice as it bordered on contractual issues.
“The Seglemi structure that we see over there, has issues…I can assure you there are challenges in terms of how the monies were faithfully applied to the project, matters that the Attorney-General would have to look at,” he said.
Speaking at the Meet-the-Press series in Accra, Mr Atta Akyea said houses at its current state was inhabitable because it did not have the on-site infrastructure including sewage system, water, and electricity.
He noted it was untrue that the Government had refused to make use of about 1,500 units to reduce the over two million housing deficits of the country.
He said the Constitution enjoins all new government to continue projects commenced by the previous government.
Mr Atta Akyea recounted that the land, which the project was built on was acquired by the Former President John Agyekum Kufuor and the government was ready and willing to ensure that project was completed to serve it purpose.
“It is expensive to abandon the project due to cost over-run so this government will not deliberately desert projects especially a project that will reduce the hardship of people. We do not have a choice but to conclude these projects,” he noted.
Mr Atta Akyea explained that after Parliament had passed the agreement in October 2012 for the construction of 5,000 housing units at 200 million dollars, the then government reviewed the contract scaling down the number of units to some 1,500 units and later reduced to 1,024 units after another review in 2016.
“We realized the dubious short-change in terms of the contract sum and the delivery of the housing units, and we believe that there are challenges of value for money analysis. The contractor misappropriated $129 million of the project funds,” he said.
