News:
September 24, 2010
The Member of Parliament for the Jomoro Constituency in the Western Region, Samia Nkrumah has stated that she would have voted against the STX housing deal if she was in the country during its debate.
Speaking on Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana Programme, Samia said she would have disapproved of the deal because she had strong conviction that there was everything wrong with the deal.
The controversial deal between the government of Ghana and Korea will allow the Korean firm, STX Group construct 200,000 housing units at a cost of $10 billion.The same deal will provide 30,000 housing units for the security services.
The deal ignited a long raging controversy among a wide section of Ghanaians including, stakeholders such as the Ghana Real Estate Development Association (GREDA), policy think tanks and civil society groups such as Imani and the Danquah Institute among others. It was finally approved by the parliament inspite of protests and an eventual walk out by the Minority.
The much anticipated signing of the deal between the government of Ghana and Korea on Monday 20th September was postponed indefinitely due to some legal discrepancies in the deal.
Hon. Samia Nkrumah who made her opinion on the deal public for the first time said she did not feel right about the whole deal and questioned why the contract was not awarded to Ghanaian construction firms who could equally do a good job.
‘’ if the deal was awarded to a local company, it would have gone a long way to provide more employment which would reduce the rate of poverty in the country’’, she added.
She urged government to focus its attention more on engaging local experts in developing the country and stop depending on other countries.
Story by : Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh