E. T. Mensah, a former minister of works and housing, has expressed surprise at several remarks made in support of how the NDC administration handled the contentious Saglemi Housing project.
This comes after Sammy Gyamfi, the party’s national communications officer, said that the project would be carried out in stages.
Mr. Gyamfi argued that Collins Dauda, the successor to E. T. Mensah, did nothing wrong in a lengthy article published shortly after it was reported that Attorney-General Godfred Dame had filed charges against five people, including two former Ministers under the NDC administration, for causing financial loss to the state.
He claimed that the actions taken by Mr. Mensah, who had notified Parliament that the housing units would not be erected all at once, could not entirely be attributed to Mr. Dauda.
“It is instructive to note that the Minister of Works and Housing at the time, Honorable. E. T. Mensah informed Parliament during the debate on the approval of the loan facility that the 5000 housing units will not be built at a go, but rather over a period of time, that is, in phases.”
He also explained that the $200 million credit facility secured for the project did not cover sewage and other ancillary works needed for the housing units.
“Under the Works Agreement, government was supposed to provide a serviced plot of land with roads, water, electricity, drains, sewage systems and other ancillary facilities for the smooth takeoff of the project, the cost of which had not been factored into the amount of $US200 million approved by Parliament for the project.”
“Since government did not have any funds to fall on to discharge these responsibilities, the decision was taken by the Ministry to use part of the approved amount of the project (US$200 million) for all the necessary ancillary works to pave way for the construction of the housing units and to make the project site a commercially viable and habitable community.
“This is what informed the decision by the Ministry to do the project in phases, as the Minister, Honourable. E. T. Mensah had already intimated to Parliament. Clearly, the 5,000 houses could not be built at a go. “
E. T. Mensah, however, rejects this account of what happened.
Speaking to Paul Adom Otchere, host of Good Evening Ghana on Metro TV, Mr. Mensah said anyone who argues the $200 million loan arrangement does not cover ancillary activities is illiterate.
The former Minister labeled the statement as a falsehood when it came to whether the project would be carried out in stages.
“It is a lie. I was not into any phases. We knew that we wanted to build, that is 5,000 houses to be built for workers, and it was approved; executive approval was given and parliament approved it, so if anything at all, If I wanted to change something, I had to go through the same process again,” he said.
He described how the project will be carried out in a single step.
He questioned, “How can people lie like this?”