The Member of Parliament for Buem constituency, Kofi Adams, has described the government’s investment of $2.6 million into building a sky train in Accra as a scam.
According to Mr Adams, the contracted company for the project has no license and there is no feasibility report regarding the contract.
He believes such a failed deal, including many others under the Akufo-Addo government led to the current economic crisis and not the Russia-Ukrainian war or the covid-19 pandemic.
“It’s one of the scams. It’s a scam because there has not been any feasibility study, there’s nothing, the company has no license, we don’t know it from anywhere and you just give away $2 million dollars and nothing has happened,” he said on JoyNews’ AM show on Tuesday.
He further argued that, the project is a scam due to the inconsistency of information given by authorities.
“The current Minister for Railway Development is saying that we can’t have any sky train now. The CEO is saying it’s a project that is still alive. Who’s telling us the truth?” he quizzed.
In 2019, Ghana signed an agreement with a South African Company for the construction of a train above the ground. This agreement was concluded at the opening of the Africa Investment Forum in Johannesburg.
The train tracks would cover a distance of 194 km and are said to be able to transport close to 400,000 passengers a year as well as cover five routes, all within the Greater Accra region.
However, the project will not happen anytime soon as the Minister of Railway Development, John Peter Amewu, has lamented its high cost. According to him, the country has other pressing needs.
“I don’t see a sky train being done in the next three to four years, let’s be very frank to ourselves.”
“A kilometre of a railway line is about four to five times the cost of building concrete infrastructure in terms of building an asphaltic road,” Mr Amewu said.
Based on this, the Minority Caucus is demanding a refund of the $2 million since the project seemingly will not be executed.
On Monday, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MPs condemned the government for the payment of US$2 million to the African Investor Holding Limited, a company located in Mauritius. According to them, government has gone ahead to strike the deal without it being subjected to parliament’s approval.
The Caucus has implored the government to ensure that the amount paid to the said company for obviously no work done is refunded.
This was after the Minister explained that the said amount had already been paid by someone in government even prior to when the company was yet to begin a feasibility study on the project.
“What was the reason for the government to act in a way to give out two million dollars? Who actually took the decision to pay this entity in Mauritius?
“Who authorised the payment of the two million dollars in terms of the feasibility studies and which normal decision maker pays out two million dollars as feasibility; before as they put it to determine whether the project is bankable?” the NDC MP for Adaklu Constituency, Kwame Governs Agbodza, said.
Meanwhile, the Auditor-General’s report has disclosed that the said company does not have a license. Mr Agbodza has, therefore, requested that the Auditor General should demand a refund.