Ten international and local companies have expressed interest in completing the Saglemi Housing Project, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Minister of Works and Housing, has disclosed.
He said the 10 companies had been taken to the project site and that they had had the opportunity to inspect works that had been left there so far.
He noted that the companies were putting together their proposals and that according to the work plans that the Ministry had put together, by the 8th of July, they expect to formally receive all proposals from the companies.
Mr Oppong Nkrumah, who disclosed this at a press conference at Parliament House in Accra, said after the Ministry had taken possession of the bids, they would be handed over to an independent evaluation entity, which would give them an evaluation report and then based on that evaluation report Government would proceed to select one of the bids, which might be a single entity or a consortium of entities.
He said the Ministry had announced a process through which the Government would select a private developer or a consortium of private developers to complete the uncompleted Saglemi Affordable Housing Project and operationalise it.
The Minister recalled that the government initially took a loan of about $200 million to build five thousand housing units, 1,506 were partially completed and that was what one would often see at Saglemi.
He noted that three major components that were missing – water, electricity and sewage works – and that when the Ghana Institute of Surveyors did their assessment, they said the government needed about a hundred million dollars to complete this 1,506.
He said the Government decided within the difficult financial constraints that it was very difficult to find an extra one hundred million dollars after two hundred million had already been spent.
“So, Cabinet took a decision that we should select a private developer or a consortium of private developers and let them invest in it so that we can operationalise it,” he said.
He said that when that selection was done, they would get the necessary cabinet approval, sign a contract with the selected entity and hand over the Saglemi Affordable Housing Project to this entity to complete and operationalise it; saying “So, that is where we are now.”
Mr Oppong Nkrumah said they were also going through the process of selecting an independent evaluation organization, and that they would be going before PPA to get the one to be selected and then they would do the evaluation and based on that they would make a decision.
He underscored that the Government was going through an open transparent process to get a developer to complete the Saglemi Affordable Housing Project
“We are fair in our minds about doing everything and above all in accordance with law, we expect that whoever is putting in a bid is also going to do the same, and then in the end we should be able to stand within the scrutiny of time,” he stated.
“We are committed to every single bid that we are receiving, eventually we will publish every single bid, we will also publish the evaluation report so that you see for yourselves how the various bids were evaluated.”
He said they would publish the decision taken and the final contract; declaring that, “So, everything is being done above board, so, everybody can have confidence that it will stand the test of time.”
The Minister said the Government was making efforts to complete another housing project in Koforidua, which was one of President John Agyekum Kufuor’s Affordable Housing Projects from before 2008, which was still out there.
He said the State Housing Company, based on the instructions the Government gave, was also going through a process of rewarding contract for that project to be completed, so they could complete it too.
He reiterated that the government wants to see to it, that work on the outstanding Affordable Housing Project of President Kufuor in Koforidua was completed.
Mr. Oppong Nkrumah said the TDC Company had done over a thousand housing units between 2020 and now, and that they were just about to break ground for another housing project of about 800 housing units.