Assurances Committee of Parliament rebuke Lands Commission for failing to provide data on public lands

The Government Assurances Committee of Parliament has rebuked the Lands Commission for failing to provide data on public lands and their use over the years.

The Committee contended that the data was required to combat fraudulent activities, which included the registration of government lands as private lands.

During the committee’s hearing on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Chairman, stated that all efforts to obtain the documents from the Lands Commission over the last two years had failed.

He said: “If this data is put together and provided, it will help all of us. These instances of government lands being registered as private lands and the fraud that is going on at the Lands Commission, as exposed by the Soul Enquirer, the only way to stem this, to prevent this, to forestall this, is to have the data, to put the data together.

“That is why I am clear in my mind that there are elements at the Lands Commission who don't want the Ghanaian people to have this data,” Mr Ablakwa added.

Mr. Samuel Abdulai Jinapor, Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, appeared before the Committee and provided some justification for the Lands Commission’s delay in releasing the data.

He said: “Mr. Chairman, the Lands Commission for all these years has been operating manually and it is just recently that we have started making efforts to digitise the records of the Lands Commission.

“The information I have from the Commission since I gave them the instructions to compile this list is that compiling the list from the 16 regions of the Lands Commission across the country from 1993 to now is an extraordinary undertaking and therefore, they have not been able to put it all together as yet. And so, I am unable to provide it now, but there is work in progress.”

GNA