NDC projects are expensive but poor quality - Collins Dauda

Alhaji Collins Dauda, Minister of Local Government, has bemoaned the high cost and yet inferior quality of state funded projects as against other projects by corporate in same vicinities.

Many Ghanaians and political opponents of the NDC, have criticised the cost of several government projects sometimes accusing government officials of inflating cost.

Addressing the opening session of a two-day workshop in Kumasi last Thursday to enhance the capacity of presiding members, Alhaji Dauda also expressed worry as to why, although such government-sponsored projects are more expensive than those funded by private entities, the privately sponsored projects usually have a longer lifespan and are of higher quality.

To buttress his point and to pour out his frustrations, the Minister cited instances when, in the Asutifi South Constituency in the Brong Ahafo region, he had seen cracks in the walls of buildings sponsored by the government soon after they had been handed over to the assembly.

‘We all know the cost of six classroom blocks constructed by a government agency in a particular community and the other by a mining company in the same area as its social responsibility, he said

He wondered how a six-classroom block constructed in the same locality by some private companies with similar materials bought from the same market and the same kind of labour tended to produce better quality structures at lower cost than the one executed by government agencies.

‘There must be something wrong with our system’, he observed.

He further chastised supervisors of various government projects for not putting up their best in playing their roles.

It would be recalled that the President John Dramani Mahama at the sod-cutting ceremony of the 172 million dollar project Kasoa Interchange Projects, reacted to critics who said the cost of the project had been inflated.

It is expected that this will generate a healthy debate now that the sector minister and a government official has added his voice to the call.

Sources: ghananews360