Saglemi Housing Project: Collins Dauda’s woes deepen

The woes of Alhaji Collins Dauda, the former Works and Housing Minister appears to be deepening by the day as details of his role in the shambolic Saglemi Housing project emerge.

The Attorney General’s Office recently revealed that it is initiating criminal charges against Collins Dauda, who was the minister in the administration of the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Collins Dauda would be going into the docks with several others believed to have played key roles in the dubious Saglemi project.

According to Alhaji Dauda’s successor and Housing Minister under the current Akufo-Addo administration, Minister Samuel Atta-Akyea, the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the police had interrogated his predecessor for allegedly ‘inflating’ the cost of the 1,500 units constructed at the project

An audit report claims only US$ 64 million out of some US $179. 90million was spent on the project, leaving some US$114 million disappearing without a trace.

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Whatsup News is gathering that in August 2012, the then President, John Dramani Mahama, granted Executive approval to the Housing Ministry for the construction of 5,000 affordable housing units.

Consequently, the Ghanaian Parliament approved the $200 million loan agreement for the construction project of 5,000 housing units for the Saglemi Housing project in Accra on October 31, 2012.

On the same day, the Housing Minister, Collins Dauda, also signed the EPC agreement with Construtora OAS, whose CEO is also facing criminal charges.

However, on February 27, 2014, Collins Dauda, without parliamentary approval, reportedly reviewed the EPC agreement and changed the scope of works and the application of the $200 million approved by Parliament.

The new agreement signed solely by Collins Dauda, without recourse to Parliament required the contractor to execute the project in three phases instead of 4 over a site of 1,272 acres instead of 2172 acres, while the $200 million was now to be applied towards the execution of only the first phase of the project, comprising just about 1,502 housing units.

This was contrary to the executive and parliamentary approvals, as well as the facility and Escrow Management agreements.

Curiously, on December 21, 2016, when the NDC had lost power, the Chief Director, Alhaji Ziblim Yakubu, on his own, reviewed the original and revised (restated) agreement and signed them without recourse to Parliament.

According to information gathered from sources, the review by Alhaji Ziblim further decimated the contract. It led to a further reduction in the scope of works to 1,412 housing units at a revised price of $181 million and extended the completion period to July 31, 2017.

However, investigations further revealed that only 668 housing units were completed by the contractor at the time the NDC administration was led out of power.

Meanwhile, Collins Dauda will be going into the docks with others such Kwaku Agyemang Mensah, also a former housing minister, Ziblim Yakubu, a former Chief Director at the

Ministry, Andrew Clocanas, the Executive Chairman of Construtora OAS Ghana Limited, the construction company responsible for Saglemi and one Novi Tetteh Angelo.

Source: Whatsupnewsghana