Govt Abandons "Job 600"

The Weekend Heritage investigations have thrown up clear indications that the government has abandoned the renovation of the celebrated Job 600 for the use of Parliament, contrary to assurances President J.A. Kufuor gave two years ago. This year's budget approved by Parliament did not allocate a pesewa to the project. Besides, the Executive arm has reportedly, asked Parliament to source a loan on its own to complete the job.

President Kufuor in his first State of the Nation address in 2001, promised the MPs that "Job 600 will be rehabilitated within two years and turned into offices, committee rooms and even dining halls."

That was very welcome news to the 200 MPs as they are in dire need of space. Only the Speaker, his two deputies and the House leadership have offices.

No committee has a meeting room, and deliberations are held in the foyer. Ideally, each MP should have at least two rooms, one for his office and another for his support staff.

But two years on, work on Job 600 built by the Chinese in record time as accommodation for the delegates who came for the Organization of African Unity (OAU) conference in 1965, is at a standstill.

Mr. Yaw Barimah, then outgoing Minister of Works and Housing told, The Weekend Heritage in an interview that though no money was allocated to the Job 600 project when the 2003 budget was read in Parliament, funding of the project would be based on revenue increase beyond set targets.

Mr. Barimah hinted that the project's completion date had quietly been shifted from within two years to by the end of the President's first term in office.

Chief Technical Adviser on Housing, Alhaji Alhasan Dwuni, disclosed that the rehabilitation of the Job 600 started in 1991 and has so far gulped down ?37.7 billion in the form of payments to contractors and sub-contractors and the purchase of equipment. Some of the equipment have been supplied but others are being held until the completion of the building.

Alhaji Dawuni told The Weekend Heritage that funding for the project had not been sorted out completely and monies allocated to the project are special funds because Job 600 is a special project for Parliament.

In an interview, Minority leader Alban Bagbin told The Weekend Heritage that, though the 2001 budget allocated as much as ?9 billion for the Job 600 renovation, government ended up "releasing an amount which was less than ?2 billion".

Mr. Bagbin said that last year when the government learnt the complex nature of the project, it "ran away from it" and started looking around again for funds but could not get it.

Worried by the inaction over Job 600, the Minority decided to raise the issue with Mr President. But according to Bagbin "the President exhibited stark ignorance about the state of development of the project. He said that Parliament should go out and look for funding from the Chinese government to come and complete the project", Bagbin recalled.

The Minority leader added that the materials the contractors were using for the renovation were actually ordered in the year 2000 by the previous government under the supervision of the former Deputy Minister of works and Housing, Mr. I.K. Adjei Mensah.

On his part, the Deputy clerk of Parliament, Mr. Agama, told The Heritage in an interview that Parliament has no information about the structure. "We are just the beneficiaries; we are waiting for the completion of the job 600 for us to move in", he said.