-After Feeding off Illegal Gov’t Contracts
Renowned UK-based Ghanaian architect, Sir David Adjaye, has been dubiously inducted as an architect in Ghana, years after the Akufo-Addo government frontloaded him and his company with juicy government contracts.
The anti-clockwise induction of the celebrated David Adjaye was unilaterally perpetrated by the Architects Registration Council (ARC) which is the government of Ghana’s regulatory body for the architectural profession.
As ARC is an agency of the Ministry of Water Resources Works and Housing, Sector Minister, Francis Asenso Boakye was the one who did the induction while also representing President Akufo-Addo at the event.
Asenso Boakye would later announce the induction on his Facebook wall saying: “At a special ceremony this morning, I formally inducted David Adjaye, OBE, a renowned Ghanaian-British Architect into the body of Professional Architects Register of the Architects Registration Council (ARC) of Ghana. Sir David Adjaye is now fully certified to practice as a professional Architect in Ghana, having satisfied all laid down requirements.”
The minister continued: “I warmly congratulate him on this achievement and hope that this will spur him into greater heights while the country utilizes his wealth of experience and expertise.”
Sir Adjaye officially getting licensed to work as an architect in Ghana in May 2022 means that when he was showered with loads of government contracts in 2019, the Principal Architect of Adjaye and Associates, was not a licensed or registered architect as is dictated by the Architects Decree, 1968 (NRCD 357).
Per that law, an architect who is not licensed in Ghana cannot practice in Ghana let alone execute government contracts.
Among the contracts illegally awarded to Sir Adjaye and Adjaye and Associates by the Akufo-Addo government are the National Cathedral, New Parliamentary Chamber, Marine Drive Master Plan and International Cancer Centre for Children.
Other juicy contracts include the Trade Fair Centre Redesign, GNPC Takoradi Office Complex, Airport City Two Design, New Railway Terminal Design and Redevelopment and Expansion of Ghana Embassy in US.
It is being speculated that David Adjaye is fronting for Akufo Addo’s family and friends at the Jubilee House, hence his questionable luck with all those juicy contracts, while other renowned architects in Ghana complain bitterly of being ignored.
It would be recalled that in 2019, in response to Sir Adjaye being awarded these juicy contracts, the President of the Ghana Institute of Architects had led Ghanaian architects to protest the illegality that the government was perpetrating.
However, the Akufo-Addo government simply ignored them and even vandalized procurement laws to ensure that prima donna Sir David Adjaye was contracted.
Meanwhile, it has been explained that in spite of the retrospective induction of Sir David Adjaye after years of awarding him contracts, the illegality has not exactly been corrected because his company, Adjaye and Associates has still not been officially licensed to operate in Ghana and since that has not happened, Adjaye and Associates ought not to legally operate in Ghana.