General News of Sunday, 12 October 2003
Source: Assasie-Gyimah, Baffour
Dear Editor,
On the 4th September 2003, I received a letter NRC/INV/V3/SFI/220 with the title “REQUEST FOR INFORMATION” from the NRC on case No ACC 000717 asking me for information on a petition it had received from one Dr Mathew Narh Tetteh claiming ownership of Unibrick Housing Units at Dansoman and Adentan.
On the same day, I wrote and sent by hand-delivery my response requesting for a copy of the statement Dr Tetteh had submitted to the NRC to enable me respond to any claim he might have made. I followed up with telephone calls to the NRC, expecting a copy of Dr Tetteh’s claim. Up to the time of writing this piece, the NRC has not even acknowledged my letter let alone providing me with a copy of Dr Tetteh’s claim.
It would surprise you dear Editor that Dr Tetteh was given the platform on the 1st and 2nd October 2003 to narrate publicly his claim that he owns the Dansoman and Adentan properties, just because he claims he invented the chemicals used to mould the Unibrick bricks.
The NRC therefore made it difficult if not impossible for me to help it or cooperate with it by providing it with evidence of the truth. Now you can understand why I have to resort to your medium for redress instead of the NRC.
Furthermore, since the dailies have published the testimony of Dr Tettey, I would want to briefly use your medium to speak the truth, as I know it in connection with the Unibrick housing technology and Dr Tetteh.
My only worry is that the NRC would have had informed choices as to how it would evaluate Dr Tetteh’s petition if my side of the story were known beforehand.
The coordinating committee further received an initial grant of 9,7 million Cedis from the Government and it started the construction of twelve housing units on land acquired in Dansoman. In March 1986 the Government of Ghana withdrew its financial support to the PNDC Unibrick Coordinating Committee when only six out of the twelve housing units had been completed. The committee resorted to bank overdrafts to complete the remaining six by August 1987.
In all the coordinating committee spent 26.7 million Cedis to complete the twelve housing units in 1987. These houses are categorised as the phase one of the project.
Phase two of the project consisted of the building of a five-storey high-rise housing unit at Dansoman. There are 30 housing units in it and funds were sourced from the State Insurance Company, which offered 30 million Cedis for the project. Phase II was built for the exclusive use of members of the FRB whose life policies were used as collateral for the SIC loan and it was a own your own home project for the soldiers.
Phase III was closely associated with Phase II and it was an 18 two bedroom housing units meant for retiring senior Non Commissioned officers (SNCOS).
The last project was Phase IV by which 12 housing units were to be built for officials and private people provided they paid upfront for the project to start. Each building was estimated to cost over 14 million Cedis.
As at the time of writing, only six out of the twelve have been completed by the Unibrick Coordinating Committee and they have all been given to their owners who have legally paid for them. Phase IV is the only project situated at Adentan, Accra and the coordinating committee acquired the land legally from the State Housing Company and assigned its interest to the beneficiaries.
This is the state of affairs of the Unibrick project and in all these acquisitions, the role of Dr Tetteh has always been that he is supposed to be the owner or inventor of the chemicals. He sold the chemicals and the machines to the Committee for over $ 300,000.00 and it was paid for. He was not even a member of the PNDC Unibrick Coordinating Committee. He never acquired any land for the buildings; neither did he put in a pesewa for labour and auxiliary matters. How then can he claim ownership of the buildings? In fact Dr Tetteh was out of the country when Phase II, III and IV were conceived and implemented.
It is indeed very ironic that in 1988 the Auditor General in his audited accounts of PNDC Unibrick Coordinating Committee asked Dr Tetteh to refund an amount of $ 30,842.60 being an amount he could not account for after utilising the $ 300,000.00loan from the IDA. This can be found in the Auditor General’s Report of 8th March 1988 and signed by one Mr J K Ghansah, Deputy Auditor General; furthermore, Dr Tetteh further took an amount of ? 50,000 from the Government of Ghana in 1987 to register the patent for Unibrick. He has still not accounted for it neither has he paid back. It is believed in some quarters that he just swindled the Government of Ghana, as he has no patent to register.
The efficacy of the Unibrick Chemical as an adhesive in moulding bricks can never be in doubt but whether the technology is Dr Tetteh’s is what has not been proved beyond every doubt. Indeed the address of the exporter company of the chemicals is available and it is possible to import the chemical if one has the money. Therefore the Unibrick chemical like clinker can be accessed so nobody should lay claim to the houses built with it. The best Dr Tetteh can do is to market his chemical if indeed it is his. No one knows what he went to do in Uganda. As he claims he had to run for his life. Maybe he tried to swindle them as well.
In conclusion, I would want to say that Dr Tetteh did not build any houses for the PNDC to take over as he claims. There is no law, decree or announcement to the effect that PNDC had taken over any property of Dr Tetteh so there is no human right issue here. Dr Tetteh sold “his” chemicals to PNDC and they were bought and paid for in hard currency and the chemical used to mould brick to put up the Unibrick houses. This is the true state of affairs of the Unibrick houses and Dr Tetteh should not be allowed to further compromise the credibility of the NRC with his lies and half-truths.
Yours faithfully
BAFFOUR ASSASIE-GYIMAH
VANDERPUYE LAW CONSULT
No 7, 2 Crescent, Asylum Down
Box CT 2019
Cantonments- Accra
Cc
THE EXECUTIVE SECRETARY NRC
OLD PARLIAMENT HOUSE ACCRA
THE NATIONAL SECURITY COORDINATOR
CASTLE ANNEX ACCRA