Saglemi Housing Project: Prampram MP Sam George lies to cover NDC mess

The Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram, Samuel Nartey George of the NDC is an MP who is fond of and known for raising false alarms in the media to gain cheap publicity. He is particularly known for his notorious lies against the security services especially the Ghana police service and government officials.

As MP for Prampram, the location of the Saglemi public housing project started by the NDC under John Mahama, Sam George did not raise any alarms when the US$200m project to construct 5000 housing units ended up with only 1500 uncompleted housing units under his own NDC government. He also did not raise any alarm when the Ghanaian parliament approved contract was later varied by his government without parliamentary approval.

The scandalous housing project has seen Collins Dauda, NDC MP for Abetifi and former minister for works and housing under the erstwhile NDC government in court for causing financial loss to the state.

If he’s unable to explain how less than half of the 5000 houses took up the entire contract sum of $200m, the NDC MP and former housing minister faces the possibility of spending years in prison for his role in squandering millions of dollars meant for the construction of affordable houses for Ghanaian workers.

In 2018, the then Minister for Works and Housing, Samuel Atta Akyea, invited the Attorney-General to scrutinize the Saglemi public housing agreement, after it emerged that some of the contract documents were missing or had inconsistencies.

Mr Atta Akyea also alleged that the original agreement for the Saglemi housing project was altered without recourse to Parliament. These allegations by the former minister form part of state charges against the NDC’s Collins Dauda for causing financial loss to the state.

He claimed that after Parliament had passed the original agreement in October 2012 for the construction of 5,000 housing units, the then Minister for Works and Housing (Collins Dauda) reviewed the contract, scaling down the number of units to some 1,500 and later to 1,024, after another review in 2016.

Could the minister for works and housing under President John Mahama have reviewed the housing contract without the tacit approval of the Mahama Cabinet? Can former President John Mahama himself be absolved from this housing scandal? Is Collins Dauda not simply the scapegoat, the sacrificial lamp for the NDC’s housing corruption?

The current minister for works and housing and MP for Bantama constituency, Hon. Francis Asenso –Boakye has said his ministry will require at least $114m to complete the 5000 housing unit project, something President Nana Akufo Addo recently said his government was unprepared to do. Rather, the NPP government has decided to partner with private investors for the completion of the housing project to ease the burden of financing on the tax payer.

But the MP Sam George in his usual fashion has claimed that government cannot allow private investors to complete the Saglemi housing project without first paying off the original or so-called allodial owners of the land. In other words, if government wants to get private actors involved in the completion of the project in his constituency, he and his chiefs at Prampram must also get their share of the money coming from the private investors.

He has therefore announced that he will lead the chiefs and people of Prapram to resist any private developer who partners government to complete the housing project that his own NDC government failed to complete under these shady circumstances.

As if that is not enough, Sam George is also now claiming, without any iota of evidence, that the government has stolen building materials worth $7m from the uncompleted Saglemi housing project with the assistance of armed police and national security officials. If there was any iota of truth in his allegations, the MP has many channels of addressing his concerns including the floor of parliament where his people have sent him to defend their rights. Rather, the MP chose the media because all he wants is to throw dust into the eyes of the people.

It is becoming very clear to all reasonable Ghanaians that the attention seeking MP for Ningo-Prampram is not only trying to cover up and equalize for the housing scandal caused under his watch as NDC MP and government, he is also trying hard to prevent the legitimate effort of the NPP government to complete the abandoned project for the use of Ghanaian workers.

If only the MP Sam George could have been this vociferous under the John Mahama NDC government when the Saglemi public housing project was launched, perhaps, the 5000 housing units would have been completed without any corrupt scandals. Unfortunately, this same loud-mouth MP turned a blind eye when the NDC government scandalously constructed less than half of what parliament approved for a whopping $200m.

Perhaps, Sam George, as MP for Prampram, location of the controversial housing project, was one of the beneficiaries of that create, loot and share scheme that has now landed one of his colleagues in court with the prospect of going to jail. If that were the case, we should then not be surprised that he has now made it his avowed duty to do all within his means to confuse the public on the matter under scrutiny.

Besides, Sam George is also clearly engaged in his usual cheap politics at the expense of the people of Ghana simply to gain cheap media attention and publicity. And this is why his recent media outbursts and malicious allegations must be treated as an attempt to obfuscate the housing scandal of his own NDC government and frustrate the NPP government and the ministry of works and housing’s effort to complete the Saglemi public housing project for the benefit of Ghanaians.