The Minority in Parliament is accusing the government of bloating the cost of a 60MW Pwalugu Dam power project it plans to establish at a cost of $360 million.
Despite approval of the facility by the Finance Committee, Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, has in a media briefing stated his disdain for the details surrounding the amount.
According to Mr Iddrisu, the cost involved is equivalent to “three times Bui [Dam], three times of best practices, three times of established figures globally and it can only be four times padded with fraud.”
He said best practices around the world place the cost between $1.5million and $2 million, citing Ethiopia’s 6,000MW Great Renaissance Dam which he says was built with $6.4 billion should have served as benchmarks for valuation of the project.
Describing the contract as a rip-off, he stated that the Minority will not be part of the process that approves the said deal.
“It is extremely exorbitant, prohibitively high and unjustified… It defies conscience relative to value-for-money and defines a government that parrots that it is transparent,” he added.
The Minority is also demanding that government provides details of the contractor behind the project to ensure accountability and transparency in the value chain.
President Akufo-Addo, in November 2019, cut sod for the construction of the Pwalugu Multipurpose Dam and Irrigation Project.
The project was in fulfillment of the President’s pledge to “avert the perennial flooding caused by the spillage of the Bagre Dam”, as the construction of the dam will be the permanent solution to the problem of spillage from the Bagre Dam.