EDITORIAL: Kumasi Airport Case Must Be Investigated Into

Yesterday, Peace FM reported that the proposed rehabilitation work at the Kumasi Airport to uplift its standard for the CAN 2008 tournament might not materialise due to a number of factors. According to the correspondent of the radio station who reported live from the airport, the award of contract to put up a VVIP lounge has ran into difficulties due to safety issues that have cropped up.

According to the correspondent's report, the government awarded the contract for the execution of the project to Messrs. Consar Limited in September but after digging and laying of concrete underground to erect the structure, the air traffic unit of the Civil Aviation Authority came in to stop the project because the proposed building was too closed to the runway of the airport. The decision, according the correspondent, came after the contractor had sunk billions of cedis in the form of materials into the project, which seemed to have gone waste.

The report further alleged that the Director General of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) sanctioned the project. The Chronicle is really disturbed by this news, especially allegation by the correspondent that the GCAA Director sanctioned the project. We are disturbed because a project like this would have gone through the due process, including safety measures before the final approval was given. So how come that the GCAA could not detect that the project was too close to the runway?

Again, who is going to bear the cost for the money that has been wasted through the apparent negligence of duty by the GCAA? Despite the prosecution and imprisonment of people for willfully causing financial loss to the state, it seems that Ghanaians are not learning any lessons from it. We really find it hard to understand why a well-established authority like GCAA could site a project that is too close to a runway knowing very well that safety measures would not permit that.

The Chronicle thinks that the issue, if it is actually true, must never be swept under the carpet. There must be proper investigations by the oversight ministry into the allegation and deal with those who may be found culpable. Ghana as a developing country cannot afford to waste money in this reckless manner. People with the relevant knowledge are being paid with the taxpayer's money to do the job they have been trained to do. Therefore, if something goes wrong, they have to be held responsible for it.

To err, they say, is human but we do not think that even a layman who does not have any expertise would site a building too close to a runway. We hope that the news as carried by the radio station is not true. But if the contrary is the case, then heads must definitely roll in addition to prosecution. It is only when we do this that our public officials would begin to sit up.

CAN 2008 tournament is left with a little over two months to commence. One can thus imagine the pressure that would be brought to bear on the contractor to complete the VVIP lounge after the demolition of the earlier one he started. This anticipated frustration would have been avoided if the supervising authorities had done the proper thing.

We shall surely return to this subject because, as a media house, we have the constitutional or moral mandate to protect the public purse.