We have to spend 50% more to complete E-Block projects – Nortsu-Kotoe

The raging debate on the abandonment of the E-Blocks appears not to be dousing anytime soon, as the ranking member on Parliament’s Education Committee, Peter Nortsu-Kotoe has described as unfair and waste of public resources, government’s inability to complete the several E-block facilities started by the erstwhile John Dramani Mahama administration.

The Akatsi North MP who led the NDC side on the Education Committee to a tour of the facilities which are said to have been abandoned in some schools across the country, expressed discontent at the snail pace at which work was being done, while adding that the current costs of cement and other building materials meant that the cost of the projects which were awarded in 2015 have shot up to some 50 percent.

“This is the third place today (Tuesday) and where we went in the morning, Goe in the Sege constituency, that one is just at the ground floor and the work has been abandoned for 5-years now. The second one at Aflao is 90% complete but the contractor has left site and here we are at Ziope and we are being told the contractor is self-financing the project due to government’s inability to pay for previous certificates raised; it is unfair, it is a waste of public resources.”

“Now, the contract which was awarded at about GHS9 million and that cannot complete this project now. That means it’s going to cost the country about 50% more the cost because it has to be revalued. As somebody said, when they started this project, cement was GHS27 now it is GHS47, GHS48 -you see the point. So where are we going, we are just wasting public resources and I think that thing must stop,” he added.

The soft-spoken law-maker wondered why the Nana Akufo-Addo led government has not been able to complete work on the facility despite the $1.5b GetFund facility approved by Parliament in 2018 towards the completion of the E-Blocks.

The tour of the NDC Members on the Education Committee was to inspect the progress of work on the facilities and to enable them demand answers from government on why the E-Blocks have since not been completed given the dire infrastructural challenges facing many of the SHS vis-à-vìs the high numbers associated with the free SHS policy.

Charles Agbeve, the MP for the Agotime-Ziope Constituency also noted that the delay in completion of the project at the Ziope Community Day Senior High School is an impediment on the academic activities of the school.

He said, “The completion of this project would have been a game-changer because this facility would afford the school to do science. Currently, in their status, they don’t do science and so any student from JHS who wants to do science must travel outside the constituency and that is also a challenge to the pockets of parents. And so when that happens immediately, even if the person is a day student and is doing science is better off than travelling to Ho or Anlo to do science and that will be a game-changer for me.”

Meanwhile, the Chiefs and people of the Ziope Traditional area in an earlier press engagement, called on government to ensure that work is completed on the project to provide more access to their children who cannot afford to travel to other places for their education.

The tour also took the Committee to other places including Aflao, Sege and Apesua in the Yilo Krobo area of the Eastern region.

Source: Kasapafmonline.com/Faisel Abdul-Iddrisu.