Gov’t secures Ghc448 to create database

As part of governments’ efforts to curb the rampant encroachment and illegal acquisition of its landed properties, it has secured a grant of Ghc448,198 from the Japanese Government’s Counter-Value Fund to create a database with digital images of its assets using Geographic Information System (GIS).

Alhaji Collins Dauda, Minister For Water Resources, Works and Housing, who disclosed this at an encounter with the media recent, said the exercise was very important because registers of government buildings and landed properties maintained by various public sector institutions were incomplete, unreliable or non-existent.

He said the Ministry has set up an Implementation Committee to undertake a comprehensive compilation of register of all state buildings and bonded land banks maintained by Public Sector Institutions.

“Since its inauguration, the Committee has completed the feasibility phase which involved the collection of occupancy information on government bungalows in some parts of Accra,” Alhaji Dauda said.

He said the exercise has now entered the pilot phase, which involved the collection of information on all state buildings and bonded land assets in the Greater Accra Region, as well as updating occupancy information collected during the feasibility phase.

Alhaji Dauda appealed to all occupants of state buildings both residential and office accommodations, and public institutions holding land banks to assist the committee undertake the important national assignment.

He said the project would significantly help government to obtain accurate and reliable information on its landed properties.

“It also has the advantage of enabling us through the geographical information systems to identify a property with the click of a button to know where a property is, who is occupying it when it was built and when it was last renovated,” he indicated.