Wa East MP disputes GIDA's response on Pwalugu Dam spending

Godfred Seidu Jasaw, Member of Parliament for Wa East and Ranking Member on the Agric Committee in Parliament, has criticized the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority's (GIDA) explanation regarding the $12 million expenditure on the Pwalugu Dam project, labeling it as misleading.

GIDA had stated that the $12 million was utilized for mobilizing the Pwalugu Dam construction, such as the establishment of a Contractor’s Camp and Site Offices at Sariba, including 10 buildings with 100 rooms, as well as auxiliary facilities such as a wood processing factory and a steel bar factory.

However, in an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show with Bernard Avle, Seidu Jasaw emphasized that the current state of the project site contradicts GIDA’s description. He highlighted that the containers and other structures mentioned in the statement are no longer present.

Seidu Jasaw stated, "The camp did exist. In fact, they were constructing the camp as of the time we visited the place but these were temporal structures." He pointed out that the camp had been vandalized by villagers after the contractors left.

Expressing skepticism about GIDA's statement, Seidu Jasaw stated, "My quick reaction from the renditions that have gone on is that this picture and existence of a camp could be misleading."

He highlighted discrepancies between the current state of the project site and the impression given by GIDA's statement. "As we speak, the current state of the project is that the camp doesn’t exist anymore, what you see is the relic of a camp that existed," he stressed.