Seth Antwi Boasiako
The Kwaebibirem Municipal Assembly (KMA) of the Eastern Region under the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration awarded a contract for the construction of a new administrative block for the municipality at a cost of GH¢1.447,183 in spite of the fact that a fairly good administration block was already in use.
According to the current Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Seth Antwi Boasiako, the contract had to be terminated because the assembly was wasting its meager resources on it.
The contract was awarded to Kingdwosco Enterprise Ltd in 2011 under then MCE, D.A. Osae, and it had been executed to the foundation level.
Responding to queries at a sitting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament in Accra on Wednesday, the current MCE said he was compelled to abrogate the contract because he realized that the project would not give the financial strength for the assembly to undertake other social infrastructural projects.
“Mr. Chairman, when I assumed office in 2017, I found out that the cost involved was too much even though it was not a priority project. On top of that, the contractor too had taken the assembly to court for a judgement debt after the payment for the work was delaying,” he said.
He explained that his administration, therefore, paid the judgement debt of GH¢120,074 and abrogated the contract for a possible review. According to him, in total, the assembly paid an amount of GH¢313,691 including the judgement debt to the contractor for work done on the sub-structure.
He said apart from that, he met a debt of GH¢240,000 left by the NDC administration when he assumed office in 2017. He, however, said that he continued with other projects left by the previous administration and completed them.
He mentioned the new lorry park at Kade, two classroom blocks at Bomso and Kukubi as the legacy projects which he inherited and completed.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr