FLASHBACK: Mahama blows $13.9m on VP's house construction

The John Dramani Mahama-led administration before leaving spent a staggering 13.9 million dollars to put up a new mansion to serve as an accommodation for Ghana’s vice presidents.

This was made public by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawuamia while addressing an audience at a Good Corporate Governance Initiative event in Accra.

The contract to the new residence was being built at the Switchback road in Accra.

The decision to construct a new residence for Ghana’s Vice Presidents came after former President Mahama decided to reside in the previous official Vice president’s residence after he was elected president.

Dr Bawumia said it was important to enforce the Public Procurement Act "strictly" to avoid such blatant abuse of the Public Procurement Act to safeguard the taxpayers' purse.

“There was this whole brouhaha about this Vice President’s residence, I am sure you heard about it, so in the context of discussing this issue, there is supposed be a vice president’s residence under construction…so I asked the question why this project has not been finished, why has it delayed and they said ‘well the contractor is owed a lot of money’ and I said how much is this money and am told well it is a lot of money."

Read the full story originally published on October 11, 2017 on GhanaWeb

A new mansion under construction to house Ghana’s Vice Presidents will cost the nation a staggering 13.9 million dollars.

The contract to the new residence which is currently being built at the Switch back road in Accra, was awarded and started under the erstwhile John Mahama-led administration.

The revelation of the cost of the mansion was made public by the Vice President, Mahamudu Bawumia during a speech at the Launch of the ‘Good Corporate Governance Initiative’ at the Kempinski Hotel in Accra, Tuesday.

“There was this whole brouhaha about this Vice President’s residence, I am sure you heard about it, so in the context of discussing this issue, there is supposed be a vice president’s residence under construction…so I asked the question why this project has not been finished, why has it delayed and they said ‘well the contractor is owed a lot of money’ and I said how much is this money and am told well it is a lot of money.

“So [I asked] how much is this house actually costing and I was shocked when I was told, can you believe in Ghana we are building a house to house our Vice President and this house is supposed to cost 13.9 million dollars.

“I mean what sort of house is it supposed to be, is the gate made of gold, pavement made of gold, blocks of gold, a house in Ghana for 13.9 million dollars…I couldn’t believe it…and I am hundred percent sure it didn’t go through competitive tender…and there it stands uncompleted,” Dr. Bawumia said.

The decision to construct a new residence for Ghana’s Vice Presidents came after former President Mahama decided to reside in the previous official Vice president’s residence after he was elected president.