Housing Project: Minority questions rationale for sod-cutting without Parliamentary approval

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentary Minority has questioned the basis for the Government to cut the sod for a $56.8 million National Affordable Housing Project and the Revised Redevelopment Scheme, which are yet to be approved by Parliament.

The housing project is a EPC/Turnkey contract agreement between Ghana and Douja Promotion Groupe Addoha.

Mr Vincent Oppong Asamoah, the Ranking Member of Parliament’s Works and Housing Committee, and National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Dormaa West, addressing the Parliamentary Press Corps on Tuesday, said the Minority had a lot of issues with the project.

They had, therefore, decided to distance themselves from the sod-cutting.

“We have a lot of issues as Minority Group in Parliament. We all know that we have over two million deficits in housing delivery that we should all help the Government to address,” he said.

“…And fortunately, for us, there is an agreement between the Government of Ghana and a foreign company, which necessarily has to come to Parliament for approval or ratification, but there are a whole lot of issues that have to be sorted out before this approval could be made.”

He said when the Committee met on July 31, the members could not come to an agreement for very good reasons.

He noted that the Government   had provided state lands to foreign companies and local ones to put up affordable housing units for Ghanaians and that the Minority was demanding a valuation report of those lands.

He said the Government was going to have a 40 per cent stake in the affordable housing project and  the foreign company was providing about $57 million.

“I know the foreign company is going to get about 41 acres of land, so do all the other local companies. So we are demanding they gave us the valuation report and cost of infrastructure that the Government is going to put in,” the Ranking Member stated.

“Even though they were putting pressure on us to approve it, the Ministry has not provided us with the answers.”

He appealed to the Government to ensure the completion of   housing projects, which were started by previous governments such as the Saglemi and Asokore Mampong Affordable projects.

Mr Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah, a Member of the Works and Housing Committee, and NDC MP for Ho West, said the Minority wanted to know the cost of the road construction, water and electricity connection to the project site, which was the Government’s commitment to the project.

Mr Sampson Ahi, a Member of the Works and Housing Committee, and NDC MP for Bodi, said fundamentally, the Minority Caucus was not against the Housing Project but were only demanding that the right thing was done.

Source: GNA