GAF housing contract inflated by GHS9 million

The Ministry of Defence is expected to embark on a manhunt for some ‘ghost’ contractors who failed to execute projects to provide accommodation for servicemen.

According to the 2011 Auditor General’s report, the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) awarded a contract for the construction of 18 housing units at a cost of GHS16.6 million in 2007, but was later varied to GHS25 million without justification in 2010.

Several years after the contract, only one of the projects has been fully executed. It has also emerged that the location provided by one of the contractors when he entered into the contract does not exist after the ministry tried to trace his firm.

Sector Minister, Dr Benjamin Kunbuor addressed the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of parliament on Thursday 14 April 2016 on the matter.

According to him, the issue has been his biggest challenge since he was appointed as minister in August 2014. He explained that the project cannot be abandoned, adding that repackaging has been done in order to complete the projects.

“We put a committee in place to even locate the contractors. I have visited a number of the projects, some are 95%, 85% complete and they have been lying there for the past 8 years,” he noted.

He stressed that: “A repackaging has been done to get the projects completed. We are trying to put up public notices because the addresses of some of the contractors, which they entered into the contract, can no more be verified”.

The minister pointed out that they “want to find out if government defaulted in honouring a certificate, which triggered the contractor to move out of the site or the contractor was paid and has not satisfied the level of performance”.