News:
December 15, 2010
The Minority Leader in Parliament Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu has told Citi News his side will continue drawing attention to the fact that the Government is cheating the nation by signing the STX Korea housing deal.
According to him, the issues the opposition NPP raised about the deal are still relevant and they stand by the fact that the deal is not value for money, and that the houses will not be affordable to many Ghanaians.
On Tuesday December 14 2010, Government finally signed a Suppliers credit agreement worth 1.5 billion dollars with STX Korea for the initial construction of 30,000 housing units for the security services. The agreement is part of a 10billion dollar deal to deliver 200,000 housing units within 5 years by the Korean company.
Under the Ghana National Housing Project, government says it is committed to rolling out projects that will seek to meet the over one million housing deficit of the country.
The Engineering, Procurement and Construction agreements were also signed on behalf of Government by the Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Alban Bagbin.
But the minority, who spoke against the deal and abstained from voting on it in Parliament, were obviously absent from the signing ceremony. Mr Osei Kyei Mensa Bonsu told Citi News their concerns still remain legitimate.
“If Government is purposed to do something and the Minority raises concerns and Government decides to go ahead, the Minority cannot physically prevent them from doing what they want to do. We can only raise the red flags for people to be aware, and that is what we have tried to do so what is there to be ashamed of” he asked.
“We have raised issues about the shortcomings of the agreement which includes the fact that we have never had any agreements where we have had two facilities- that is the issuance of sovereign guarantee and insurance put together. We have insisted that the prices of those facilities are going to be too high for the common person and we have been engaging in intellectual discourse to let them know that they are cheating and ripping the nation. We have nothing to be ashamed of and we insist that they are wrong but if they want to go on so be it, because it will vindicate us” he said.
Source : citifm