Fresh details have emerged challenging recent claims by former Tarkwa-Nsuaem Member of Parliament, George Mireku Duker, regarding the contribution of mining services firm Engineers and Planners to local development.

During an interview on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme hosted by Philip Osei Bonsu last week, the former MP alleged that despite operating for years as a key service provider to Damang Goldfields, the company had failed to deliver any meaningful physical infrastructure to communities in the Tarkwa enclave.

He is quoted as saying, “We know that E&P has been in Tarkwa for many years and Goldfields has built E&P in terms of local content, but ask yourself, in terms of corporate social responsibility, how many of them have we received from E&P? Very little.

"For me, as MP for eight years, I don’t remember E&P inviting me to attend any commissioning ceremony. But the first contract mining contract was awarded to E&P and today many people are worried because one company is taking all the contracts because he’s the President’s brother.

"Can you imagine if former President Akufo-Addo’s daughter had taken this contract? It would have received a large public uproar.”

However, information now available indicates that Engineers and Planners, a firm owned by businessman Ibrahim Mahama, has undertaken several impactful projects across communities where it operates.

Evidence of the company’s interventions points to a number of completed and ongoing initiatives aimed at improving education and community welfare in Tarkwa and its surrounding areas.

These include; Construction of an eight-unit classroom block

Establishment of a 200-seater ICT laboratory

Development of an auditorium, originally planned as a dining hall

Provision of six office spaces for tutors and administrative staff

Donation of 1,000 bags of Dzata Cement

These projects, according to sources within the community, have contributed significantly to enhancing educational infrastructure and supporting local development efforts.

The revelations appear to counter the assertions made by Mireku Duker and have reignited discussions around the role of private mining service providers in community development within resource-rich areas.

While the debate continues, stakeholders say a broader, fact-based assessment of corporate contributions is necessary to ensure accountability and balanced public discourse on development in mining communities.