Probe 'white elephant' $200m Saglemi project – Atta Akyea to AG, EOCO

Minister of Works and Housing, Samuel Atta Akyea, has urged the Economic and Organised Crime Office and the Attorney General to probe the $200m Saglemi Housing Project over misappropriation of funds by the past Mahama government.

In 2016, former President John Dramani Mahama commissioned the first phase of the project to complete 1,500 of 5,000 housing units at Saglemi, near Tsopoli in the Ningo-Prampram District in the Great Accra Region.

Even though Deputy Works and Housing Minister, Freda Prempeh told Class91.3FM’s Executive Breakfast Show host Moro Awudu all the way in the United States of America (USA), on Wednesday, 26 September 2018 that only 442 units have been completed despite about 98.7% of the project cost having been paid, former Deputy Minister of Works and Housing, Samson Ahi, insisted the Mahama administration completed 1,024 of the 5,000 low-cost houses before leaving office.

Commenting on the development, Mr Atta Akyea said: “I can assure you that there is a challenge in terms of how the monies were applied to the project” – matters that he believes the Attorney-General and EOCO “should investigate”.

According to Mr him, until basic utilities are provided, the completed units cannot be occupied and put to use.

“They do not have the requisite infrastructure and amenities for people to go and inhabit the place. They do not have water facilities, they do not have decent drainage systems and, therefore, the monies intended for the project have been used for this white elephant we are seeing”.

Mr Atta Akyea was of the opinion that the government will need to get “credible people to complete the structures and then when we have amenities like water, electricity and sewage systems, people could go over there”.