Samson Ahi slams government for abandoning Veep residence project

Sampson Ahi, a former Deputy Minister for Works and Housing has taken a swipe at the current administration for failing to complete the an official bungalow for the Vice President.

The Member of Parliament for Bodi constituency said, he is shocked by government’s seeming neglect of the project and has challenged it to complete the project.

“…If there are issues, they should raise the issues and address them for it [residence] to be used as duty post of the current Vice President and the subsequent Vice President of our country. If there are issues with it, they should take the necessary steps to rectify it and then continue with the project. If there has been overpayment they know what to do to get the money back and if the contractor has not been paid, they know what to do.”

The Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia had expressed shock after finding out that the official residence under construction for the country’s Vice Presidents, would cost the country $13.9 million dollars.

Speaking at the Action Chapel Good Corporate Governance Initiative in January this year, Dr. Bawumia said upon enquiries as to why the construction of the Vice President’s official residence was delaying, he was told that the state owed the contractor who worked on the project, an amount he later found was close to 14 million USD.

“There is this whole brouhaha about the Vice President’s residence, so in the context of discussing this issue , there is supposed to be a Vice President residence under construction officially, so to speak. So I asked a question as to why this project is being delayed and they said the contractor is owed a lot of money and I asked how much is this money, and I am told it is actually a lot of money. And I asked ; how much is this house actually costing and I was shocked when I was told. Can you believe in Ghana we are building a house to house our Vice President, and this house is supposed to cost 13.9 million dollars.”

“I mean what sort of a house is this supposed to be?Is the gate made of gold?The pavement of gold?The blocks of gold?A house in Ghana for 13.9 million dollars?I could not believe it. How many boreholes could we have done…?Of course, I am 100 percent sure it did not go through competitive tender, otherwise we would have known about it. It was most likely sole-sourced, and there it stands uncompleted at the moment. This is just an example of many contracts that we do not have value for money for.”