Successive governments’ neglect of public projects is one major reason Ghana’s development has so much retarded. The canker now worries virtually every Ghanaian – including even politicians who are partly blamable for non-completion of the projects. An urgent stoppage of the canker and completion of the delayed projects is, thus, one desire all Ghanaians are unanimous in.
An Adom News documentary dubbed Ghana’s Abandoned Projects (Parts 1&2) vividly portrays how schools, markets, roads, hospitals, inland ports, silos, factories – name them – that the taxpayer’s money was used to fund have all been left to rot. While the exact costs of all the abandoned projects cannot be given by any state department, conservative estimates suggest the loss occasioned by the project abandonment is more than all IMF loans given to Ghana put together.
The first part of Asukodo – Ghana’s Abandoned Projects aired on Adom T.V. on March 4, 2023. The second and final edition comes off tomorrow, April 29. Ahead of the final part, the Director General of the National Development Planning Commission, Dr. Kojo Mensah-Abrampa, has agreed with Adom News that, “True, many development projects have in the past been discontinued” adding, though that “more have been continued and actually completed.”
The matter is of so much public concern that the Christian community that forms about 70 percent of Ghana’s population has raised its voice against the negligence. Bishop Paul Kwabena Boafo, who heads the Methodist Church Ghana, has this to say about Ghana’s Abandoned Projects: “The National Development Planning Commission must be entrusted with the developmental agenda of our nation, and this may be made such that no party comes to throw whatever plan we have away.”
For the Muslim community, which makes up about 17 percent of the population, Sheikh Armiyawo Shaibu – the spokesperson of the National Chief Imam – says “It is painful that we have observed over the years, that successive governments have deliberately abandoned projects for development that were meant for the larger masses of the people, especially the poor. The current Saglemi Housing Project is a good example.”
The neglect of the projects dates back to the First Republic; and, every regime after 1966 is culpable of the offence. However, it has become so objectionable that, today, virtually all politicians are shying away from the anathema. On the occasion of the launch of his latest presidential candidature campaign, ex-President John Dramani Mahama damned public project neglect, making this pledge into the future: “We will take an inventory of all abandoned and uncompleted projects in this country and focus on completing them.”
What about other heavyweights lacing their boots for the political battle of December 2024? For New Patriotic Party presidential candidate-aspirant Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, uncompleted projects will receive systematic attention under his presidency till all of them are eventually completed.
His opponent Dr. Mahmoud Bawumia says he will evolve an effective antidote for uncompleted projects, if and when he becomes president. Such other presidential aspirants as Christian Kwabena Andrews of the Ghana United Movement and Percival Kofi Akpaloo of the Liberal Party of Ghana – to mention but a few – have all promised Adom News they will kill the evil of neglecting public projects as president of the Republic.
After using Part 1 to expose scores of projects left to rot by successive regimes, and the hundreds of millions of Cedis that the country has lost through the negligence, Adom News also probed for solid solutions to the offensive waste of the taxpayer’s money by policy implementers.
Good news is that the evil of public works neglect is killable. Much of the solution lies in the ambit of the NDPC that is charged with planning the balanced and sustainable development of Ghana. He gives convincing insights into how to stop the rot and chart accelerated development of the country.
Watch Asukodo – Ghana’s Abandoned Projects 2 this Saturday on Adom T.V. from 11:30 am prompt!