We used $46m to dredge gutters, why are we allowing Saglemi to die? – Nana Otu Darko

The Convener of Saglemi Not 4sale, Nana Otu Darko, lashed out at the government for its decision to allow the housing project to die away.

According to him, the Sanitation Ministry used up to the tune of $46 million to dredge the Odaw River, therefore, the government does not have any right to say that they do not have the means to continue the project.

In an interview with GhanaWeb Business, he said "In recent times, when Cecilia Dapaah was a minister in charge of sanitation, you remember that some 200 million dollars that came to Accra following some monies that came from overseas to help us deal with sanitation issues and all that. 46 million dollars went to her ministry, what did she use the money to do? To dredge gutter. If we have 46 million dollars to dredge just a gutter. And if we are allowing Saglemi to die in such a bad fate then I think that the President is not being fair to us."

Nana Otu also noted that the claim by the government that there is not enough money to continue the construction of the Saglemi housing project is false.

The government has said that plans are in place to hand over the Saglemi housing project in its current state to a private sector entity at no extra cost to the government.

Nana Otu Darko stated that the government cannot make the argument that it cannot afford to revive the project if there are plans in place to build a new Bank of Ghana headquarters valued at $250 million.

“The Bank of Ghana is using a tune of not less than $250 million to build a new edifice. What is wrong with the current edifice? Are they telling us that we don’t have some 46 million dollars for the offsite work and some 68 million dollars for the property itself, amounting to some 112 million dollars, while we are expending about 250 million dollars to build an edifice that will be of no use to the people of Ghana,” he said in an interview with GhanaWeb’s Stella Dziedzorm Sogli.

The Saglemi Housing project was initiated in 2012 under the erstwhile Mahama government for the delivery of 5,000 housing units at a total cost of US$200 million under an Engineering-Procurement-Contracting (EPC) Agreement with Messrs Construtora OAS Ghana Limited.

According to the government, by the end of the stipulated project execution period, only 1506 out of the planned 5000 housing units had been initiated and approximately US$196 million representing 98% of total project funds has been expended.

A visit to Saglemi by GhanaWeb Business showed that the project has been left to the mercy of the weather.

SSD/NOQ

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