The Minister for Works and Housing, Samuel Atta-Akyea has stated that the government intends to terminate the existing contract for the Saglemi housing project.
According to him, the state was short-changed in the $180 million deal which was entered into by the John Mahama government.
The project was for the construction of 5,000 units of affordable housing.
The Minority in Parliament after touring the project site on Tuesday demanded negotiation between the contractors and government to get them back to the site to complete the work.
They also urged government to ensure that those already completed are occupied.
But the sector minister, Samuel Atta-Akyea said the case has been referred to the Attorney General for advice.
“We realized A dubious shortchange in terms of contract sum and the delivery of the housing units and we believe that there are challenges of value for money analysis. So we have made reference to the Attorney General for advise because we intend terminating the contract, taking over the project for completion and when we see any malfeasance, we will address it,” he said.
Atta Akyea in 2018 said the housing units lacked essential amenities such as water, electricity and drainage systems.
“The Seglemi structure that we see over there is a huge trouble. If we should go into why it has not been inhabited we will go into crisis. I can assure you there is a challenge in terms of how the monies were faithfully applied to the project, matters that the Attorney-General would have to look at and EOCO to investigate,” he said.
The project is being undertaken by Messrs Construtora OAS Limited as the contractor with the client being the Ministry of Works and Housing. Ridge Management Solution, RSM Ghana Limited is serving as the consultant for the project.
A total of 5,000 housing units were to be delivered at the end of the contract.
The Phase I of the project, which comprises 1,412 units consisting of two- and three-bedrooms, 116 normal town housing units, have practically been completed, one of which has been designated for a police station. 636 units out of the 1,024 were also completed for occupation”.
The remaining 388, he said, are 70 per cent completed.
