Member of Parliament for Akwapem South, Hon. O. B. Amoah is questioning the immediate past NDC government about the whereabouts of the US$663,229,496 they promised Ghanaians of raising to finance the construction of the Accra Sewer and Storm Drainage Alleviation works, popularly known as ‘Conti Project’.
The project was aimed at improving storm water flow, drainage and sewer systems in the Accra Metropolitan Area with a primary focus on works within the designated flood zones in the Odaw Basin and the Korle Lagoon to alleviate the frequent flooding and improve sanitary conditions.
The focus was to tackle priority drains needing construction and upgrade drains in the following areas: Odaw Upstream, Mataheko, South Kaneshie, South Awudome, Onyasia Tributaries, Nima Main and Nima Tributaries, Sukura/Mampon Drain and the Industrial area drain.
According to the Akwapem South law maker, even though Parliament on October 25, 2012, approved all the agreements covering the project, till date Ghanaians have no knowledge about the whether the said money was released or not.
“It is only under the NDC that they promises to solve the flood situation and said that they have gone for US$663million and went ahead to take the President to the site to cut the sod for the commencement of the project. Mr. Speaker, as we speak now, not a Cent has come to this country”, he noted.
Hon. Amoah made this observation, Thursday, March 9, 2017, when contributing to the debate on the 2017 Budget on the floor of Parliament.
The project, Kasapafmonline.com learnt also received further Preliminary Commitment from the America Export Import Bank in March 2013 with the contract subsequently signed between the Accra Metropolitan Assembly and the contractor – Conti on June 11, 2013.
The contract sum was in two folds; a loan agreement of US$538,299,497 between the Government of the Republic of Ghana and the United States of America for the construction of the Accra Sanitary Sewer and Storm Water Drainage Alleviation Works project; and a loan agreement of US$125,000,000 between the Government of the Republic of Ghana and Standard Chartered Bank for the construction of the Accra Sewer and Storm Water Drainage Alleviation Works project.
Then Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Alhaji Collins Dauda wrote to Parliament on July 22, 2015 in response to a request for further information about the said project by the MP for Akwapem South that while the loan was being processed, preliminary works commenced immediately after the signing of the contract along the Korle Lagoon Ecological Restoration Project (KLERP) to forestall the occurrence of flooding.
The work he added was executed by Conti’s local partners with the government advancing some payments to the said local partners in June 2015.
He further told Parliament that the project has since 2015 been put on hold pending the completion of the loan processes which were still going.
Hon. O. B. Amoah commenting further told the August House that failure on the part of the NDC to secure the loan for the Conti project among others made the umbrella family’s legacy under local government very abysmal.
“NDC bequeathed us with weak decentralization, poor waste management services, congested and dirty urban communities, poorly managed assemblies, poverty and its associated deaths”, he noted.
He said the NPP under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will do far better than the NDC did, stressing that the 2017 Budget will vindicate him.
“We are promising that there should be a national urban policy and under this we are saying that with the geographic info systems, we will develop a better addressing system more especially, we are addressing fiscal discipline, and we are promising fiscal transparency, fiscal accountability and priority at the local level. All these were missing under the eight years administration of the NDC”, he stressed.
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