Freddie Blay’s Son’s Name Pops up in Scandalous UN Housing Deal for Ghana

A scandal has rocked a project by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) to build 100,000 housing units in Ghana for the poor, as investigations have been launched into how UNOPS misapplied tens of millions of dollars meant for the project.

And as the UN probes the matter, international media outlets are quoting sources within UNOPS as saying that the scandal may have spelt certain doom for the project which President Akufo-Addo, as far back as 2018, touted as a game changer for Ghana.

Meanwhile, deep within the scandal, is Kwame Blay, son of Freddie Blay, the National Chairman of the ruling NPP who happens to be a local partner to the company of a man who is said to have received millions from the UNOPS for the project and lavished some on his daughter, including an alleged US$3million to record a pop song and a video game.

The UN is however not letting details out.

In 2018, a plan to build 100,000 homes in Ghana was launched by a UNOPS with much pomp and rhetoric with President Akufo-Addo touting the project to be “ushering into existence a new dawn for Ghana and our citizens.”

The project was part of a UNOPS initiative known as Sustainable Investments in Infrastructure and Innovation or S3i.

S3i aims to de-risk and attract private sector investment to infrastructure projects in developing and emerging economies.

The Ghana housing scheme was among eight S3i investments — others promised to build hundreds of thousands of homes in India, Guinea, the Caribbean, Pakistan, and Nigeria.

Four years down the line, not a single house has been built and UNOPS is owed tens of millions of dollars in the project which was said to be aiming for an investment of over US$63MILLION.

Rather the UN has opened investigations into funding by the initiative.

Further, S3i’s entire housing project is now “under review,” and S3i, which is based in Helsinki with support from the Finnish government, has seen Finland suspend its funding while the U.N. investigation is conducted.

Specifically, the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services has launched an independent investigation into the circumstances around a series of loans to Singapore-based company – Sustainable Housing Solutions Holdings, or SHS Holdings, which is a primary S3i contractor.

The probe is focused on S3i’s chief executive Vitaly Vanshelboim, who drove the initiative’s agenda and oversaw its lending to SHS Holdings.

However, SHS Holdings is owned by a man called David Kendrick.

According to reports, UNOPS’ Internal Audit and Investigations Group has launched a separate review into the circumstances surrounding a $5 million grant to David Kendrick’s daughter, Daisy Kendrick, who at the time was a student at Boston’s Northeastern University.

UNOPS is said to have disputed this figure but acknowledges it paid Daisy Kendrick $3.3 million to fund a project aiming to reach millennials to promote ocean conservation.

Daisy Kendrick, who founded a group called We Are The Oceans, developed “The Big Catch,” an interactive means of learning about ocean protection.

Part of that also paid British singer Joss Stone to perform a song called “Oceans” as a way to inspire a generation to stop polluting the sea in line with U.N. Sustainable Development Goal 14.

Incidentally, David Kendrick and his SHS-Holdings have their Ghana local partner as Kwame Blay.

Mr. Blay has been reported saying he remains confident that the project will take off. “The Ghana project is going ahead as planned,” he is quoted as telling the international outlet, Devex.

But according to reports, all of S3i’s projects have been put on hold with UNOPS now saddled with some $38.18 million in “bad and doubtful debt,” according to its July 2021 annual report.

Much of the money is said to have reportedly gone to David Kendrick and Kwame Blay’s SHS Holdings.