Job 600 to ‘swallow’ $39 million more

The Ministry of Water Resources Works and Housing is asking the Ghanaian taxpayer to pay more for the ongoing renovation of the famous Job 600, a post independence structure originally built in preparation of Ghana hosting the OAU Conference of 1965.

When completed, the towering but sprawling edifice will house up to 250 modern offices for Ghanaian Members of Parliament, ending a two decade-long era of MPs using their car booths as offices.

It will also provide modern offices to house research assistants for the nation’s MPs.

But, in order to end what Adenta MP, Kojo Adu Asare, has called “an unpleasant era in the history of Ghana’s Parliamentary democracy where MPs eat virtually in the open, receive guests anywhere here in Parliament and above all use our cars as offices”, the Ghanaian taxpayer must dig deeper into his pocket to fork out more tax cedi to support the ongoing reconstruction works on the edifice, which was built by the Dr. Kwame Nkrumah-led Convention People’s Party government (CPP).

The Ministry of Water Resources Works and Housing is asking for up to $39 million more to finance the completion of the five-decade-old structure into which the state has already sunk a loan amount of nearly $ 36 million dollars.

Although Parliament is yet to debate the details of the 39 million dollar loan agreement, the Minority group is demanding “full disclosure” as to the “fine details of the justification for additional funding for the Job 600 project.”

“I have serious problems with the government’s request for additional funding for this project,” Minority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, told The Globe in an interview, While raising issues with the structural integrity of the existing structure, the Suame MP said: “In fact I am of the firm belief that with 36 million dollars, we could have built an entirely new structure.”

He added that he had no doubt that it would have made “more economic and architectural sense” to pull down the entire Job 600 structure to make way for the construction of an entirely new office complex for MPs, instead of adding new structures and weight to a building that had been left to rot for so many years.

“That would have given the building a longer life-span,” he said, explaining: “It is my view that adding more weight to a 50 year old structure, whose structural integrity is for me problematic, will not give the new offices for MPs more than 70 years.”

The Minister for Water Resources Works and Housing, Hon Alban Bagbin, has declined to respond to the concerns of the Minority leader, explaining “any comment on this matter, which is currently pending before a joint committee of Parliament will be prejudicial to discussions on the floor of Parliament”.

But, officials of the Ministry of Water Resources Works and Housing say the estimated cost of the renovation works on the structure has ballooned due to inflation and a sharp rise in the prices of building materials, a claim the Minority leader has challenged “saying that cannot hold because the cost of the project was dollar quoted.”

Also, two new blocks have been erected behind the original structure. One will serve as an auditorium; the other will serve as a kitchen.

The new structures have rooms for modern restaurants, a gym, offices for banks, fire station etc.

“So clearly, you can see that there is need to ask Parliament to approve additional funding for the Job 600 project,” Finance Committee Chairman, James Klutse Avedzi told The Globe.