Community takes over Ghana @ 50 project

The teachers and pupils of Kodie in the Afigya-Kwabre District have taken possession of an uncompleted classroom - a Ghana @ 50 landmark project, abandoned in the community, to prevent it from further deterioration.

The roofed structure was covered with weeds with certain parts getting rotten while the Methodist Primary ‘B’ struggled with classroom space for academic work.

The children and their teachers, therefore, said they could not allow the state resources put into the project to go down the drain and so they moved in their chairs and tables and their action have since received the widespread support of the community.

The structure has five classrooms, an office, staff common room, store and library. The outstanding works, however, include the fixing of doors, windows, and the ceiling, plastering and improvement of the floors.

A visit to the school by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) saw classes in session in the unfinished building.

Reporters of the nation’s wire service had gone there under Strengthening Transparency Accountability and Responsiveness (STAR) - Ghana’s sponsored media auditing and tracking of development projects, an initiative launched to put a spotlight on how government’s resources were helping to transform the lives of the people, particularly the rural population.

The goal is to aid transparency, promote accountability and good local governance.

Mr. Kwaku Oppong-Kyekyeku Kaakyire, the District Chief Executive, when contacted, said the assembly had been trying to locate the contractors to get them to finish the job.

The difficulty, however, he said, was that there was no trace of any document on the project at the assembly.

In another development, a block of six classrooms being built at Amponsakrom, another community in the district through the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) had also stalled.

Like the Kodie project, it has been roofed and left with fixing of doors and windows, plastering and painting, to finish the job.

Mr. Martin Appiah-Danquah, the assembly member for the area, described the situation as worrying, especially amid the severe congestion in the school.

He said they could be forced to take over the block since they did not have any other option.

The project was awarded on contract more than three years ago, and it was far behind schedule, he added.

Reacting to the delay, Mr. Oppong-Kyekyeku said the Assembly did not have direct control over GETFund projects, but they could just monitor and supervise.

He promised to do everything to get the contractors back to site to complete the work.

STAR-Ghana, according to its official website, is a multi-donor pooled funding programme (funded by DFID, DANIDA, USAID and EU) to increase the influence of civil society and Parliament in the governance of public goods and service delivery, with the ultimate goal of improving the accountability and responsiveness of Ghana’s government, traditional authorities and the private sector