The National Democratic Congress Member of Parliament for the Asunafo South Constituency, Eric Opoku, says his colleague, Collins Dauda, who has been sued over the Saglemi Housing project has not been served with the writ.
Mr. Opoku, who is the spokesperson for Collins Dauda, former Works and Housing Minister, made this known on Eyewitness News on Monday, August 2, 2021.
“I interacted with him [Alhaji Collins Dauda], and I can indicate the fact that he has not been served [with the writ]. He is calm, and he thinks that what is happening is part of the work that we do for our nation. He has served in the capacity of a minister and was entrusted with a lot of responsibilities.”
“So if he is being called to account for his stewardship, he has no problem at all, except that he is worried about the fact the whole matter has been twisted for the sake of propaganda.”
Background
The New Patriotic Party government had held the view that the Saglemi Housing agreement was altered by Collins Dauda without recourse to Parliament. Mr. Dauda has thus been slapped with causing financial loss to the state.
The basis for the financial loss charges against Mr. Dauda is for various payments made to companies involved in the project like Construtuora OAS Ghana Limited, VHM Ghana Ltd, Architectural and Engineering Services Limited and Vitor Hugo-Coordencaao e Gestao de Projecto.
According to the facts of the case, $196,428,891.66 has been spent on the Saglemi Affordable Housing Project, with the contractor having been paid $179,904,757.78, but investigations revealed that the cost of works executed on the site, including consultancy services, was about $64,982,900.77.
In addition, only 651.75 acres of land out of the 2,172 acres of land made available by the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing to the contractor for the project has been developed.
Per the charge sheet sighted by Citi News, investigations further revealed that only 668 housing units were completed by the contractor.
These houses have been described as inhabitable and not a single house under the project has been sold, and the facility remains unpaid, resulting in huge financial loss to the Republic of Ghana.
Also facing charges in the matter are four others; Kwaku Agyeman Mensah, Alhaji Ziblim Yakubu, Andrew Clocans and Nouvi Tetteh Angelo who are facing multiple counts of causing financial loss to the state.
Kwaku Agyeman-Mensah was also a Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing from April 2015 to January 2017, Alhaji Ziblim Yakubu was the Chief Director of the Water Resources, Works and Housing Ministry from July 2009 to April 2017, Andrew Clocanas was the Executive Chairman of Construtora OAS Ghana Limited whilst the Nouvi Tetteh Angelo is a director and the majority shareholder of Ridge Management Solutions. He is also a director of VHM Ghana Ltd.
