GH¢6m for Council of State office: Have they brought down their own homes?- Ade Coker

A former Greater Accra Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Joseph Ade Coker has questioned if the Members of the Council of State have brought down their own homes and renovated them before requesting the rebuilding of its office.

According to reports, the frontage and some aspects of the Council of State Office building, near the Parliament House in Accra, are to be pulled down and rebuilt at an estimated cost of GH¢6million.

This is because the building, completed in 2016 at the cost of GH¢4.6 million, is said to have been constructed out of plan and unfit for purpose due to challeng­es including insufficient space in the meeting room.

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The Acting Executive Secretary to the Council, Stephen Blay, told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament in Accra on Wednesday that the communica­tion system in the room deprived them of privacy during meetings, while the facility also lacked a sewage system and private places of convenience.

“In 2017 when the 7th coun­cil took office it was discovered that the building was put up out of plan. The edifice over there doesn’t have a single suitable meeting room. The council is a 31-member council but the meeting room in the building has a capacity for only 15 people.

“Apart from that, the sewage system was never done. Then the communication system, when you are at the top and you talk, when people are on the ground floor, they hear all the things that you are saying. So the council felt it wasn’t appropriate to occupy it at that time,” he said.

Mr Blay appeared before the committee to answer questions emanating from the 2021 Audi­tor-General report on Ministries, Departments and Agencies, which noted that the council building remained unoccupied.

He said in 2017 when the council realised that the building, constructed and supervised by the Public Works Department was not suitable it invited the Ghana Institute of Architects to inspect, resulting in the conclusion that the building needed to be remodeled.

Mr Blay said the model was planned for somewhere between 2018 and 2019, but the idea was shelved when the drop-that-cham­ber campaign was ongoing, and the atmosphere was not conducive to pull down part of the building.

He said in 2021 the council sub­mitted a proposal to the Ministry of Finance asking for GH¢6mil­lion for the remodeling of the building which was approved but it was not released.

He said in July last year the council revisited the remodeling idea and had since spoken to the Chief of Staff and the Minis­try of Finance with proposals on remodeled structures and a budget submitted to the latter for consideration.

Reacting to this on Atinka TV’s morning show, Ghana Nie with Ama Gyenfa Ofosu Darkwa, Mr Ade Coker said, “Have they brought down their homes? The house they built for so many years, are they still not comfortable?,”he quizzed.

He said even the Council of State itself is not needed, questioning if they have spoken about the hardship of the Ghanaian people in the past four years.

According to Mr Ade Coker, some Members of the Council of State are very old and using walking sticks questioning why the Government wants to use 6million to rebuild their office.

Meanwhile, he said people are drinking water with animals in some villages while at the Binduri Community Day Senior High School, students have boycotted classes over shortage of food, saying the money should rather be used to address those challenges.

Ghana| Atinkaonline.com| Porcia Oforiwaa Ofori