Housing Minister inaugurates seven-member committee on government properties
A Seven-Member Committee to take stock of all government housing properties and submit an interim report by end of May was inaugurated in Accra on Monday.
The interim report based on the Committee’s findings is expected to inform the Government as to its housing assets and liabilities under the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing and the way forward.
Inaugurating the committee, Mr Enoch Teye Mensah, Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, tasked it to provide the sector with the list of government properties (office and residential accommodations and buildings for other purposes) and to state their conditions and who were occupying them.
He said the exercise of keeping a registry of government properties would be replicated in other regions.
Mr Mensah said rumour was rife that some former public officials had either sold State bungalows or bequeath them to their descendants stressing, the truth of the matter had to be established.
He said, “In recent times, some of these houses have been sold, while others have been converted to other uses. The result is that there appear to be no credible list of the properties of government that are under the Ministry”.
Mr Mensah said successive governments had always found the wisdom in maintaining a number of houses for their core employees within the civil society in order to enhance the efficiency of workers.
He recalled with nostalgia when he and other public officers could travel with ease to Parliament from their Ridge-based residence at 07:00 GMT and back late in the evening at 22:00 GMT stressing the situation was different nowadays because the state had lost some of the bungalows.
Mr Mensah expressed worry that some colleague Ministers of State had to travel everyday from their domicile in Kasoa in the Central Region to Parliament.
He said government attached importance to maintaining a level of housing for its employees, especially for those in senior management positions in view of the country’s housing deficit.
Mr Mensah was confident that the committee members would bring their experiences to bear on the task at hand.
Nii Nortey Duah, Deputy Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, said it was appalling to know that there was absence of data on government properties, especially in Accra.
He therefore, called on the committee to work assiduously to meet the deadline.
Dr Shaibu Gariba, Chairman of the committee, described their assignment as important and gave the assurance that they would live up to expectation.
Other members are; Mr Daniel Tackie, Mr Roland Bortey, Mr Frank Quist, Mr P.K. Boafo, Wahad Iddrisu and Mr J. E. Hagan.
Source: GNA