The Minister of Youth and Sports, Isaac Kwame Asiamah has directed that an audit should be conducted to ascertain the state of $3 million worth of equipment initially acquired for the construction of the University of Ghana stadium.
Construction of the multi-million dollar stadium was started in 2004 by CONSAR Limited under the administration of former President John Agyekum Kuffuor.
However, work stalled in 2008, and for the next nine years, equipment including cables, television broadcast systems, telephone networks, ceramic tiles, sanitary items worth a total of $3 million dollars have been left at the mercy of the weather and thieves.
The equipment has been packed in storage containers and in some rooms of the concrete structure of the stadium where they are gradually growing obsolete and have been left at the mercy of the elements as well as rodents.
Mr Asiamah in an interview after a tour of the facility on Thursday afternoon said, he was disappointed by the current state of neglect and waste of the huge investment made by government into the construction of the stadium.
“It’s a very big disappointment and shameful for this country that such a huge investment is going down the drain.”
“One would have expected that what was met here about nine years ago continued for the 40,000 students of this university, you can’t imagine how useful it would have been to them.”
The Minister also disclosed that years of neglect of the facility has shot-up the cost of completion to $16 million.
“It’s about sports infrastructure that President Kufuor decided to put up for these students but nine years has seen this facility rotting and being neglected and abandoned, now the cost has gone up and we need a whopping sum of about $16 million to get this stadium completed.
“We need to change our attitude and we need to ensure that when a government comes and there is a project it is completed”.
The Chief Quantity Surveyor of the University of Ghana stadium project, Mr Oppong Nyarko who accompanied Mr Asiamah on the trip said the project stalled because of lack of funds from the government of Ghana.
The University of Ghana stadium has been chosen as one of the venues for the 2018 Africa Women Cup of Nations between November 17 – December 1, 2018.
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