MINORITY PROBES BAGBIN … Over failed STX Deal
By : Emmanuel Akli
Mr. S.K. Bagbin
Mr. Enoch Teye Mensah
I
Minority Leader,Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu
f the Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing, Mr. Enoch Teye Mensah, had taken into consideration a statement made on the floor of Parliament by his predecessor, Mr. S. K. Bagbin, that the government had not committed any state funds into the STX project, he would have probably reviewed his pronouncement that the government was going to take steps to retrieve all investments made in the project.
But, his failure has given the Minority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the cause to question the discrepancies in the statement made by the two leading government officials, and the demand on Mr. E. T. Mensah to tell Ghanaians how much the government of Ghana has spent on the now comatose STX housing deal.
When Mr. Bagbin, who is now the Minister for Health, was summoned by Parliament for briefing on the status of the STX deal, which was meant to construct 30,000 housing units for the security agencies, he insisted that the project would come on, and that some of the sites were being cleared for the project to take off. He also denied that state funds had been committed into a project that has not seen the light of day.
Addressing a news conference in Accra on Wednesday to officially announce the full closure of the chapter on the STX Korean deal, the newly-appointed sector Minister, Mr. E.T. Mensah, said the government was taking steps to recover all government investments in the company, as well as the assets it provided for the execution of the project.
Speaking in an interview with The Chronicle in Accra yesterday, Mr. Kyei Mensah Bonsu argued that the pronouncement by the Works and Housing Minister contradicted the earlier statement made in Parliament by Mr. Bagbin, that the government had not made any investments in the project.
He noted that if the investment was made after Bagbin had left office, his successor should be kind enough to tell Ghanaians and disclose all state funds that had been committed into the project.
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu further told The Chronicle that when contractual problems arose after Parliament had approved of the deal under a Certificate of Urgency, the Minority side advised that the whole agreement be brought back to Parliament for them to review it. But the advice was ignored.
Instead, some government functionaries, including the Deputy Minister for Works and Housing, Dr. Hannah Bissiw, kept jumping from one place to the other, giving different accounts about the project.
The Member of Parliament for Suame in the Kumasi metropolis also called for the immediate withdrawal of the sovereign guarantee given to the STX partners to source for funds.
According to him, the partners had taken the guarantee to the US, Europe, and all sorts of places looking for funds that never came. The latest was the allegation that it was even sent to Nigeria to look for funds.
He argued that now that the government had decided to back out from the deal, it was only appropriate that the sovereign guarantee is also withdrawn immediately, to save the country from any further embarrassment.
The Minority Leader has, meanwhile, asked both the ministries of Defence and Interior to tell the public the justification for the recruitment of new personnel into the Ghana Armed Forces, the Police Service, and other security agencies.
According to him, when Parliament invited the Minister for Defence, General Henry Smith (rtd), and the then Minister for the Interior, Cletus Avoka, in 2009 to explain why there was no recruitment into the security agencies, they argued that there was no accommodation for the new recruits, and that they were waiting for the STX houses before embarking on new recruitments.