Even 1st year quantity surveying student won't err like this - Pratt to Bawumia

Seasoned journalist, Kwesi Pratt Jnr has chided Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia over his presentation on the infrastructure record of the Akufo-Addo government at a Town Hall meeting.

He has questioned how a brilliant scholar like the Vice-President, acclaimed as an Economic wizkid, could fail to properly cost a visible project like an interchange.

Dr. Bawumia, delivering a speech at the meeting dubbed “Town Hall Meeting and Results Fair”, gave some figures to justify the good works of President Nana Akufo-Addo with regard to infrastructure in his government's first term.

On road networks, Dr. Bawumia said; “about 17,334 individual projects have been started since January 2017. We have completed a total number of 8746 projects throughout the country. A further 8588 projects are at different stages of completion throughout the country.

“This is consistent with our strategic orientation to ensure the development of broad base, wide scale infrastructure, taking place in every district across the country instead of a few big infrastructure projects in a few cities.”

He made further costings of the projects undertaken by the government and in the area of constructing interchanges, the Vice President compared the amounts that the current administration is using to erect some interchanges and the sum of money that the erstwhile Mahama government spent on similar projects.

“It is important to note that the cost of the Tema, Pokuase, Tamale, and Obetsebi Lamptey interchanges total $289 million while the Kwame Nkrumah interchange was constructed at a cost of $270 million."

But Kwesi Pratt says Dr. Bawumia got his figures wrong.

Speaking to host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', Mr. Pratt noted that the Kwame Nkrumah interchange didn't cost as much as the Vice President put out.



Not only that, he said, the cost of other landmark projects mentioned by Dr Bawumia does not also add up.

The Kwame Nkrumah interchange "involved the construction of a mosque; one mosque. In addition to the mosque, we erected an office block for the Accra Metropolitan Assembly. Two 'trotro' stations were constructed as a result of the construction of the interchange and so on, and adjoining roads,” he said.

He stated that the initial cost of the Nkrumah interchange was 74 million dollars but later on estimated at close to $179 million due to the facilities that were constructed alongside the interchange.

This was just but a few projects that Kwesi Pratt mentioned in his submissions but regarding the cost variations in Dr. Bawumia's presentation, Mr. Pratt wondered how a PHD holder in Economics like the Vice President could mix up his figures.

"I didn't expect that from somebody who is a PHD holder in Economics. Even first year quantity surveying students will know about costing of projects..."

"...A GIJ student like me even knows how to cost projects. How about a person like him (Bawumia) who has been a Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana and holds a PHD in Economics and so on?"