Ministers have no place to stay - Gov't

Government is complaining that its ministers have no official place to sleep because state houses meant for them were sold off to private interests by the former New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration.

This concerns comes after an Accra High Court ordered the deputy Minister of Trade and Industry and Odododiodio Member of Parliament (MP), Nii Lante Vanderpuye, to hand over the keys of a contentious bungalow to Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, Chairman of the NPP, who the Supreme Court ruled as having legally acquired the state bungalow in 2008.

NPP national chairman will have custody of a government bungalow he bought during the Kufuor administration at the end of this month.

But speaking on Joy FM's Top Story, deputy Minister of Works and Housing, Samson Ahi noted that houses in plush areas like Osu, Ridge, Airport residential areas were disposed of under the guise of a "so-called" Accra Re-development policy.

Samson Ahi is also officially homeless.

Under the "fantastic" policy, Hackman Owusu Agyeman, former minister for the Interior says an acre of land that housed just a bungalow was re-demarcated, and other houses built on it to accommodate even more state officials.

He says there was enough to house senior civil servants, judges and about 80 ministers and deputy ministers without any problem during the Kufuor administration.

He therefore suggested that if there was a problem today, it was because former ministers or appointees under the Presidency of the late Professor Atta Mills were still adamant in leaving those bungalows.

Alternatively, the number of ministers under the current administration may have "tripled"; otherwise Hackman Owusu Agyeman further indicated that there was "no earthly reason" why ministers and their deputies will be stranded.

But Ahi disagrees with this explanation as he estimated that about 50 bungalows have been sold to NPP sympathizers.

He could not state the number of bungalows belonging to government, but promised that he would furnish the media with details when he arrives in Accra.

The implementation of the Accra Redevelopment Policy begun in 1999 and the policy is believed to have been abused.

The deputy minister says a memo will soon be sent to cabinet to find lasting solutions to the problem, an option he says will include a Public-Private Partnership.