The Construction of the Pwalungu Multipurpose Dam in the Upper East Region may hit the rocks if the Minority in Parliament is able to realize it’s demand for the halting of the project because of an alleged opaque nature of the procurement process.
Minority in Parliament has called on the government to suspend the construction of the Pwalugu Multipurpose dam and disclose the process of procurement.
President Nana Akufo Addo In November 2019 cut sod for the construction of the Pwalungu Multipurpose Dam in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region which aims at boosting agriculture and supplying electricity to augment the national grid . The cost of the project was pegged at $993 million to be funded by the government of Ghana through Sinohydro a construction subsidiary company of China-Power.
The loan agreement has since been tabled in parliament for deliberations. But at a press conference held in Accra on Tuesday, February 5 2020, the minority described the cost of the project as “inflated and padded cost.”
The minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu said: “We are demanding that if this government believes in transparency, and value for money, they [should] make us know how the procurement process was undertaken. We are not against the people [beneficiary communities]. We are concerned about the cost of the irrigation and power facility.”
“[The current price is] three times [that of] Bui, three times best practices, three times the established figures globally, and it can only be four times padded with fraud, and we state as a Minority that we will not accept this,” he added.
Continuing, Mr Iddrisu noted that “no one should expect” that the minority will “be part of any process to give approval to this because it is a complete rip-off.”
Source:A1radioonline.com|101.1MHZ|Ghana
