Adeiso Agenda 111 Project: Govt Spends GH¢ 13 Million For Cutting-down And Clearing Of Land
Information available to this news outlet indicates that the spending of GH¢13 million to cut-down the hilly land to prepare it suitable for the construction of the hospital project was additional money which was not part of the contractual agreement payment sums of the money charged by the female contractor.
Freeman Koryekpor Awlesu Greater The government of Ghana has spent a total of GH¢13 million to cut down and clear the hilly nature of the land earmarked for the people of Adeiso and Yaw Obeng communities in the Upper West Akim District of the Eastern Region to build a modern One-District-One-Hospital under the government's Agenda 111 Project located at Adeiso, the capital of the Upper West Akim District," According to information by the Soireenews.com correspondence report.
The information available to this news outlet indicates that the spending on GH¢13 million to cut down the hilly land to prepare it suitable for the construction of the hospital project was additional money which was not part of the contractual agreement payment sums of the money charged by the female contractor.
This news outlet gathered that the location of the land earmarked for the project by the two communities was very hilly areas which bring special challenges to the contractor, hence the government has to spend an additional GH¢13 million to cut down the land.
These problems were detected after the building experts and engineers from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development paid the site visit of the project and accessed the land earmarked by the people of Adeiso and Obeng Yaw to execute the project.
The investigations conducted by Soireenews.com have discovered that the government has to instruct the contractor by assurance to pay extra money of GH¢ 13 Million to her to use a road grader to cut down the land to its lowest level before the land could be good for the project.
The processes of the documentation in the connection of the acquisition of the land from the traditional authorities of Obeng Yaw on the negotiations of the actual money to be paid as compensation package to the landowners have also been delayed.
Initially, the landowners have demanded to collect an amount of GH¢ 30,000.00 as the compensation package from the government.
But the government through the Assembly has pleaded with the landowners for which they pegged their compensation package at GH¢ 20.000.00 and the government has dully paid the money to the chief and elders of Obeng Yaw. The payment has given the legal backing to the government that it has acquired the land for the project.
However, soireenews.com understands that
these are some of the major challenges which have generally caused the delay in the starting of the project.
In this sense, soireenews.com can report that the Upper West Akim District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Eugene Kwabena Sackey cannot be blamed for the delay in the starting of the project.
The information available to this news outlet also indicates that the Assembly has not awarded this contract to the contractor but it only has oversight responsibility of the project and that the Assembly or the DCE cannot be held responsible for the delay of the project.
The government should be blamed by the residents of Adeiso for the delay of the project.
This is because the contract of the project was awarded to the contractor by the government of Ghana through the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development under the President Special Initiative.
The project which is a national project is an agenda of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo led News Patriotic Party (NPP) Government to construct a Government Priority Health Infrastructure in every District in the country.
Each hospital is being constructed for $16.88 million, i.e. $12.88 million for construction and $4 million for medical equipment, and all the hospitals are to be completed in 18 months and works will begin on the regional and other hospitals in the latter part of the year”
Agenda 111 includes 101 district hospitals, six regional hospitals in the newly created regions, two specialized hospitals in the middle and northern belts, as well as a regional hospital in the Western Region and renovation of the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital.
The objective of the project is to significantly deepen the delivery of quality healthcare at the district level, boost access to healthcare services for all citizens towards ensuring the attainment of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal Three.
Speaking in an interview with a journalist, the DCE stated that there is pictorial evidence to show that the contractor is on the site currently cutting down the land to prepare it for the starting of the project and that he has done anything wrong to be blamed for the delay of the project.
According to him, the female contractor has started working on the site for the past two weeks by way of cutting down the hilly nature of the land and denied allegations to the effect that the project was not ongoing.
He complained that the two communities had not given good land to the government for the project, saying that the land earmarked for the project was very hilly.
According to him, when the building engineers from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and the Consultant for the agenda 111 Hospital project visited the site, they complained that the land earmarked for the hospital project by the people of two communities led by their chiefs was very hilly areas.
Following this development, according to Mr Sackey, the ministry had advised the chiefs of Adeiso and Obeny Yaw to look for another land suitable for the project but they insisted that they wanted the hospital project to be built in Adeiso and Obeny Yaw.
"The government stated categorically that some other two chiefs have already given out suitable land to build the hospital project but the chiefs and elders of Adeiso and Obeny Yaw said they wanted the project to be built on their land," the DCE reaffirmed.
He mentioned that during the introduction of the Agenda 111 project, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development brought a letter to the chiefs and elders that they needed 15 acres of the land for the construction of the One-District-One-Hospital project.
The DCE pointed out that when the ministry through the Assembly consulted the Paramount Chief of Adeiso, Osabarima Asare Oduro, he told the government that he would discuss the issue with the chief of the Yaw Obeng community.
Following this development, the DCE stated that the paramount chief of Adeiso referred the government to the chief of Akuapemhene of Adeiso, Nana Boapomsem because the paramount chief of Adeiso, Osabarima Asare Oduro told the government that Nana Boapomsem performed everything for him.
In this regard, he revealed that the DCE stated that Nana Boapomsem and the chief of Yaw Obeng have worked together to get the land for the project.
"So when the ministry paid the site visit they complained they cannot work on the land between the land is in the hilly areas. In that regard, Ministry requested that the Adeiso community with the help of the Assembly look for flat land for the building of the project, but the chiefs and the people of Adeiso and Obeny Yaw resisted that they wanted the project to e built on their land.
"So this has informed the decision of the Assembly and the community to decide to cut down the land because of its hilly nature before it must be used for the project.
"We needed about GH¢13 Billion to do such work. So since the Assembly could not afford to raise that money for the work the Assembly has written a letter to the office of President to explain the details of the current problem that they have encountered with the acquisition of the land for the project.
"So when we went and begged the office of President, it has instructed the contractor to come and start cutting down the land and added its cost of GH¢13 million to the already charged contract sums. This has also been one of the contributory factors of the delayed starting of the project," the DCE explained.
