The Ministry of Works and Housing has rejected allegations by the Minority in Parliament that the government has misused $65 million of the $200 million allocated for the Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development Project (GARID).
This comes after the Minority last Friday, May 17, 2024, opposed the approval of a $150 million loan facility from the World Bank, intended to address drainage and flood management infrastructure improvement in the Greater Accra Region.
The minority believed that the government had mismanaged the $200 million lending facility that had previously been approved for the GARID project.
Meanwhile, a statement released by the Works and Housing Ministry on Monday, May 20, clarified that the $65 million was not embezzled as alleged by the minority, describing such an assertion as untrue.
“As of March 2024, $127.12 million had been drawn down, with $65 million directed to support the COVID-19-related expenditures under the Contingent Emergency Response Component (CERC) agreed with the World Bank and included in the Project Appraisal Document. $34.33 million of the amount drawn down was used for GARID activities and the remaining $27.79 million represent the bank balances as of the reporting period.
“It is also not true that the $65 million from the project fund used for COVID-19 was embezzled. The World Bank and the Government agreed to include a “Contingent Emergency Response Component (CERC)” in the credit facility,” part of the statement read.
The Ministry also added that claims that contractors have been paid for no work done are inaccurate.
“The claim that the project paid mobilization for contractors who have executed less or more than 18-20% of work, amounts to mismanagement of project funds is unfortunate. Standard practice in contracts permits paying contractors 10-20% of the total contract amount as mobilization ahead of the inception of works. Subsequent
payments are tied to the attainment of specific milestones or deliverables outlined in the contract. Therefore, claiming that mobilization payments or any contract sums tied to deliverables amount to mismanagement is, to say the least, most unfortunate.”
See full statement:
