According to the Foreign Affairs Ministry, a project that was originally estimated to cost the government GHC 1,435,728.99 ended up costing GHC 7,967,886.57 since the contractor was unable to complete it on time due to poor health. International Development Resources was given the job of renovating the Adu Lodge Guest House on March 15, 2007. However, according to Ambassador Ramses Joseph Cleland, the Acting Chief Director of the Ministry, the project stalled a year later as a result of the contractor’s poor health.
When the Ministry appeared before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Friday, January 20, 2023, it stated that the project had been revisited in March 2019 and had been re-valued at GH7,967,886.57 for the same contractor to complete at the consultant’s request.
According to the Auditor General’s report, 90% of the contract sum, or GH7,741,501.60, had already been paid as of June 2019. After 13 years of delay, the project, according to the Ministry, has now been finished and delivered to the Ministry.
The committee questioned whether the provisions of the contract permitted for the failure of the contractor to complete the project on time to incur a cost to the state after being unsatisfied with the Ministry’s answer. In response, the Ministry stated that nobody else save the estate officer, who wasn’t present at the committee meeting, could speak to that. The committee has therefore directed the Ministry to furnish the Public Accounts Committee with the contract and all necessary documents for a determination on the matter in its report.
