– As Scandal Brews In The Housing Ministry
Whatsup New Has intercepted a third curious housing contract between the Samuel Atta Akyea-led Ministry of Works and Housing and another private company to construct 100,000 government housing project at a staggering cost of US$ 4.5 billion.
The contract shows that the company is indeed an Irish company registered in Ghana. The company is located at Unit 1 Floor 6,7 Marine Road Dun Laohaire Co. Dublin-Ireland. Its Ghanaian offices are located at 22 Ravico Road, Nungua-Accra.
This brings to a total of approximately US$ 40 billion in contracts to private companies to build 1.12 million houses with costs to the Ghanaian government spread over a maximum of 30 years.
The latest intercepted document is a commercial contract between the Housing Ministry and a company called Africa Investment Construction Limited. The contract document is dated August 2018.
In the document, the government of Ghana is the “Client” and Africa Investment Construction Ltd is the “Contractor”.
On page two of the intercepted document, it is clear that the government of Ghana will bear the staggering cost of the project in the long run. It states: “The Client hereby covenants to pay the Contractor in consideration of the design, the execution and completion of the Works and the remedying of defects therein, the Contract Price or such other sums as may become payable under the provisions of the Contract at the times and in the manner prescribed by the Contract”
It continued on the same term that, “In consideration of the payments to be made by the Client to the Contractor as hereinafter mentioned, the Contractor hereby covenants with the Client to design, execute and complete the Works and remedy any defects therein in conformity, in all respect, with the provisions of the Contract.”
The document pointed out to some annexures that clearly outlined the payment schedule to the government of Ghana within the 10-year lifespan of the contract. The implication for this contract that is approximately 7 per cent of Ghana’s entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for 2018, must have gone through rigorous parliamentary scrutiny. However, information picked up by Whatsup News shows that there was no such scrutiny as everything was “prepared and cooked” between the Finance Ministry and the Ministry of Works and Housing.
“The Client and Contractor hereby acknowledge and understand that the Client has entered into this contract agreement with the Contractor that it has the financial wherewithal and the Contractor covenanting to bankroll the project or the good standing to raise the requisite funding for the project,” states the contract.
According to terms of the contract, the private company which is represented by one Felly Kalambay Kunda and Patrick Gyefour, will deliver 100,000 houses within 10 years, raising questions of the time value of the properties by the time the project is completed.
A computation of these housing units said tagged as “Affordable Housing” shows that it will cost about US$ 45,000 (GHC 225,000) to complete one unit. Building experts say that each unit will not cost less than US$ 60,000 (GHC 300,000) to be sold to Ghanaian. This rate is clearly beyond the scope of affordable for many housing-starved Ghanaians, Whatsup News has learnt.
This contract has also raised questions about the criticisms shot at the previous administration of John Dramani Mahama who contracted an ill-fated US$ 200 million government housing project at Seglemi close to Prampram in the Greater Accra Region. The Seglemi houses cost about US$ 40,000 per unit to complete with a much better exchange rate for Ghanaians because at the time, the dollar to the cedi ratio was below the current levels.
The Seglemi Contractor, Constratora OAS Gh. Ltd only constructed 1,412 houses before the contract went sour in 2017. It was awarded in 2014.
Meanwhile, it is unclear that these mega contracts being given to private companies by the Akufo Addo administration had any invitation extended to the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA).
In total the Akufo Addo government has given government housing projects totalling a whopping US$ 40 billion to three companies. The contracts are about 70 per cent of Ghana’s entire GDP as at 2018.
All of these contracts were signed between August 2018 and October 2018. The first one was signed with a curious Othniel Limited whose project name sounds curiously similar to the name of the law firm of the Minister of Housing Atta Akyea. The project is dubbed Project Zoe. Meanwhile, Atta’s Akyea’s law firm is called Zoe Akyea & Co Legal Practitioners.
That project was to deliver 20,000 houses at a cost of almost US$ 1 billion. The second contract t=is the US$ 4.5 billion signed with the Irish company.
The third contract is a major one signed between the government of Ghana and a private company called Greenspan Innovations Solutions Limited an Austrian-based Global Housing Solutions. This incredibly ambitious mega-contract involves US$ 35 billion to complete one million houses in across Ghana in 30 years.