Committees investigating recent collapse of buildings granted more time

The committees investigating the recent collapse of storey buildings under construction have been granted more time to gather adequate information to establish the actual cause of the disasters.

Within a space of two weeks, the country recorded four separate cases of the collapse of storey buildings under construction, three of which occurred in the Greater Accra Region and one in the Northern Region.

The investigators, drawn from four built environment professional institutions—the Ghana Institute of Architects, the Ghana Institute of Planners, the Ghana Institution of Engineering, and the Ghana Institution of Surveyors—commenced investigations into the incidents on May 22, 2023.

The investigators were deployed to the Old Bortianor, Adentan, and La Nkwatanang-Madina municipalities of the Greater Accra Region, and the University of Development Studies Campus in the Sagnarigu Municipality of the Northern Region to gather and analyse data from the sites.

The teams were expected to conclude their work by June 5, 2023.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Foster Osae-Akonnor, President of the Ghana Institute of Architects, said the extension of the deadline would allow the team to secure comprehensive information to support its work.

He said some of the assemblies initially did not cooperate with the investigators, but the situation had been resolved.

Meanwhile, preliminary investigations by the Engineering Council of Ghana had cited poor supervision, particularly on the part of assemblies, as a major contributory factor to the collapse of the buildings under construction.

Wise Ametefe, the Registrar of the Council, earlier told the GNA that preliminary investigations at the disaster sites had revealed that the owners of the buildings either did not obtain permits or extended the buildings beyond what was approved.

In the case of the Bortianor church building incident, the Council said preliminary investigations had shown that there were “a lot of flaws in the construction”.

“Concrete columns were there without reinforcement. Concrete work was done porously; there was little supervision,” Ametefe said.