Government seeking funding for Job 600

Accra, March 4, GNA - Government is keenly sourcing for adequate funds towards the completion of the Job 600 Project that would serve as office accommodation for Members of Parliament (MPs).

The Project, which had been at a standstill for over four years, "will re-start after money is sourced soon," Nana Akomea, Minister of Information told Journalists in Accra on Thursday.

He was responding to a number of issues Professor John Evans Atta Mills, Presidential Candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) raised at a Public Forum organized by the main opposition party on Tuesday that the sitting government had not fulfilled the promises it made in 2000 to refurbish the building.

Nana Akomea said Prof. Mills should not have made that assertion since the inability of the NDC Government to account for the 25 million dollar grant from the World Bank had become a serious damper on the search for new funds for the project.

"Let us hope that some money is sourced soon. When the money becomes available, government will definitely apply it to refurbish the Job 600," he stressed.

Nana Akomea explained that the decision to refurbish Job 600, the 13-storey block behind the State House in Accra dated back to 1988. He said during that period Mr Justice D.F. Annan, then Speaker, Mr J.H. Owusu Acheampong, then Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Mr J. H. Mensah, then Minority Leader, secured a grant of 25 million dollars for Parliament to finish the project.

"That money was included in ERSO One support, but the NDC under the Vice Presidency of Prof Mills, misapplied that money, claiming it had gone into the consolidated fund account."

He noted that a year later, when the Finance Minister presented the ERSO Two for approval, Parliament expected a pledge that the World Bank grant of 25 million dollars for Job 600 would be paid, ... "but the NDC government refused to release the money."

On the one billion IFC loan, which Prof Mills described as a scam, Nana Akomea said, " government did not advance any money or fees whatsoever to the IFC. There was no loss of money to the State, apart from negotiation time and travel."

He said the practice was normal in any negotiation as there had been many instances during the Prof Mills' Vice Presidency, which yielded nothing.

Nana Akomea noted that to try to impute or accuse government that it fell for a scam was, therefore, unfair and not objective criticism. He indicated that the Government had good intentions and sought a quantum of credit that would enable it to provide infrastructure more rapidly, through which the IFC group came up as being capable of providing that quantum of loan.

He said the accumulation of GETFUND arrears, which Prof Mills described as unconstitutional, was not fair, adding that the Ministry of Finance had explained the circumstances regarding the arrears.

"Indeed the Finance Minister had pledged to Parliament last year that he would no more run arrears on these accounts and had kept his word." He said the same situation prevailed under the Vice Presidency of Prof Mills where 107 billion cedis of the District Assemblies' Common Fund were accumulated.

"It is strange that Prof Mills had not then discovered that the arrears were unconstitutional," Nana Akomea said.