Ministers Accused of Misconduct in Housing Deal

Two cabinet ministers of Ghana are under pressure to resign as they face misconduct accusations in a housing deal between the government and a South Korean-owned firm.

The agreement of the deal was suspended indefinitely by the parliament on Thursday on grounds that certain portions of the draft were missing.

The ministers involved are Alban Bagbin, minister of water resources, works and housing, and Kwabena Duffuor, minister of finance and economic planning, who worked on the deal before its submission to the parliament.

The deal, worth 10 billion U.S. dollars, was negotiated between the government and the STX Engineering and Construction Ghana Limited, and involves construction of affordable housing units in the next five years.

Spio Garbrah, vice chairman of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) party, told a local radio on Friday that the suspension proved the officials in charge of the agreement had done a rather "poor job."

Edward Ennin, an opposition lawmaker, called for immediate resignation of the two ministers, saying that they had failed to heed advice from some lawmakers that the STX housing deal deserved proper scrutiny before it was brought before the parliament for approval.

The Integrity Initiative (GII), Ghana's anti-corruption agency, also called for the dismissal of the ministers whose inaction, it says, led to the suspension of the debate over the deal in the parliament.