The Herald has gathered that the Eastern Region was not spared in the wanton looting of state assets including bungalows and public lands in Accra and Kumasi which characterized the Kufuor administration.
So perverse is the situation that workers of the Eastern Regional Co-ordinating Council have no bungalows to live in because most of them have been sold out by the previous government, but none was built by way of replacement.
The Eastern Regional Deputy Minister who disclosed this to the paper added that currently, his outfit has resorted to using scarce resources to rent private places to house the public and civil servants as well as National Service Persons posted to the region to serve.
From the Eastern Regional capital, Koforidua, The Herald correspondent, Augustus Boateng, reports that Mr. Baba Jamal described the situation as “very unfortunate and disturbing.”
This report comes in the wake of recent revelations by the Minister of Works and Housing, Alban Bagbin, that over 300 state houses were sold to the cronies, family members and ex-ministers of the Kufuor regime, resulting in a massive housing deficit for state official.
In an exclusive interview, the Deputy Regional Minister further revealed that the Regional Co-ordinating Council has started taking inventory of all the state bungalows in question and to ascertain whether due process was followed in selling them to the present owners it plans forwarding its report to the appropriate quarters for the necessary action.
He said presently, government officials working in the region had to live without their families since there is no place for their dependents as a result of the alarming situation, and this has somewhat affected productivity.
Mr. Jamal insists that his interest lies not in the people who bought these state-owned properties but whether due process was followed in the disposals and the right prices paid in acquiring these assets.
The idea behind selling the state land which started in the late 90s, was to make judicious use of public lands.
The proceeds from the sales were to be used to build new houses for use by public and civil servants.
However, under the previous regime both the state bungalows and the land, on which they were situated, were sold to party men and government appointees very cheaply.
Recent threats by the Mills-led government to take back what has become known as the “stolen lands” have rather sparked the perpetrators into action, to briskly start building houses in indecent haste on their illegally acquired lands.
From Accra to Kumasi, the perpetrators, literally, are calling the bluff of the government, and are openly constructing plush mansions on the disputed plots.
With just a telephone call, from the Castle-Osu, expensive plots at Denyame-Kumasi, valued at ¢1 billion, were shockingly demarcated and shared among NPP big shots at a giveaway price of ¢10 million, per plot, and within days, some of the personalities involved were busily selling their booties at a whopping ¢950 million while others had priced theirs as high as US$500,000.
The beneficiaries include Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh (Baby MP), Member of Parliament for Manhyia and grandson of ex-President Kufuor; Mr. Anthony Oteng-Gyasi, ex-President of the Association Ghana Industries (AGI), Ms. Patricia Appiagye, ex- Mayor of Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA); S. K. Boafo, the ex-Ashanti Regional Minister, and the Ex-Chief of Staff and Minister of Presidential Affairs, Kwadwo Mpiani.
Other beneficiaries include Madam Cecilia Abena Dapaa, MP for Bantama; Baffuor Asare Amankwatia, Mr. Ernest Yaw Kwarten, ex-Deputy Ashanti Regional Lands, Mr. Owusu Akyaw, Dr. Joyce Dontwi, Nana Kwabena Oduro, Adwoa Birago, Prof. Yaw Safo Boafo, Charles Osei, K Owusu-Poku, Kwame Agyarpong Boafo, Baffour Owusu Asare Amankwatia, Kwaku Frimpong, Anthony Gambrah, Akwasi Banahene, Nana Kwame Kyeretwie, Johnson Asiedu, Mr. and Mrs. Oduro-Kwarteng, Osei Assibey, Kofi Dua-Adonteng, Stephen Mensah Opoku Agyemang, Charity Osei and Alhaji Hamidu Ibrahim Baryeh, ex-boss of the Lands Commission.
