A former Chief Executive of the Bui Power Project, Mr Fred Oware has stated that his administration left behind a meticulously prepared plan and documentation for both funding and progressive construction of the Bui City.
He said under the main Bui Hydroelectric Project, all the funding for the project, including Ghana’s counterpart funding of $ 57 million were lodged in China and that it was the Chinese who did the disbursement and not the Kufuor Administration.
Mr Oware was responding to the issues raised by the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, who is also a Member of the Bui Power Authority.
Mr Oware who is also a First Vice Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), presented the press with documents, drawings, meeting registers and agreement covering the project, and said prior to leaving office in 2009, “I made seven copies of all documents pertaining to the Hydro-Project as well as the Bui City and Irrigation Project.”
He expressed surprise at the comments by Mr Asiedu Nketaih and added that “such irresponsible statements can only come from someone who does not read materials sent to him or chooses to be mischievous.”
Recently, Mr Asiedu Nketiah challenged former President JA Kufuor to come out with how his administration intended to build the Bui City which he promised Ghanaians.
According to him, President Kufuor was only building castles in the air when his administration promised Ghanaians that the Bui Hydro Project included a Bui City, which consisted of skyscrapers, a university, among other developments.
Mr Oware explained that no city could be built within a specific period of time and what the Kufuor government and its partners sought to do was to build the project in phases and that the first phase funding included Bui Hydroelectric Project, EPC/Turnkey Project Contract Volume 1 Schedule of payment subsection 117.
He said included in the schedule was $ 15 million for Permanent Employment Facilities, $12 million for Irrigation Structures, and $11 million for Facilities for Resettlement all totalling $ 38 million. “Additionally, there was a sum of $ 12 million under schedule number 2. Road and Bridges Works which was to be applied to road works within the proposed city.”
He added that a copy of the business plan, on the planning and development of the Bui City was handed over to the new Chief Executive Officer, as part of the materials he left behind and those documents and files on the project showed the project concept, methodologies, work done, contacts made and the road map to completion.
Mr Oware described as strange the recent request by the government to Parliament for additional $ 118 million to complete the Hydroelectric Project because under the EPC/Turnkey Contract any additional funding to complete the project should have been out of the question.
He, therefore, urged Parliament to verify the composition of the $118 million “I assure them of some interesting revelations.”
This he said was because under the funding arrangement put in place, any price increase should be borne by the contractor. “However, the additional funding which is a financial loss to the state is caused by the Mills Administration”.
He explained that at the time of leaving office in 2008, there were three passed certificate totalling over $97 million which were unpaid and thus attracting penalties and, therefore, increased the project cost, because the Mills administration stopped all the contracts payments for six months when it came into office.
Mr Oware noted that the late payment had also led to delayed completion date. The project will now be completed in 2013 instead of 2012 with further costs implication.
He said in the name of local content, the current board had appointed sub-contractors to undertake the resettlement housing with charges higher than the Chinese rates and this would increase the original cost.
He alleged that Mr Asiedu Nketiah’s company was the only company in Bui manufacturing blocks for the entire resettlement project, and that sub-contractors who make their own blocks risk their contracts being terminated.
Mr Oware added that ultimately the higher prices charged by Mr Asiedu Nketiah would affect the project.
He said the new board continues to insist that the Chinese should buy chippings/aggregates from a supplier based in Sunyani, over 60 kilometres away from the site, at a price likely to add a further $ 50 million to the original cost.
He added that if Mr Asiedu Nketiah succeeded in calling [former] President Kufuor for public hearing, further details would be made of his own contributions to the difficulties he is complaining about.
Regarding former President Kufuor being the board chairman of the Bui Project, he said he did so because he wanted the best for the country from a single project which involved the highest amount, adding that this was not new because both President Nkrumah and Kutu Acheampong were the board chairmen for both the Volta River Authority and the Kpong projects.
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