North Tongu Member of Parliament Samuel Okudzeto has asked why the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Ernest Addison, is still in office despite the problems of the BoG.
He asked the governor to disclose the cost of the land that the new BoG headquarters is being built on in Accra.
“Governor, Why is he embarrassed to publicly disclose the latest cost of his gravely insensitive, sleazy & majestic head office which is an astonishing US$ 222.79 million (excluding land cost)? Why is he refusing to resign?” Ablakwa tweeted.
My response to the MisGovernor
Why is he embarrassed to publicly disclose the latest cost of his gravely insensitive, sleazy & majestic head office which is an astonishing US$222.79million (excluding land cost)?
Why is he refusing to resign?#OccupyBoGProtest#AddisonMustGo pic.twitter.com/Gy85vYaE0F
— Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa (@S_OkudzetoAblak) August 22, 2023
This was after Dr Ernest Addison had said that the BoG took the decision to build a new headquarters in 2019 when the bank was making profit.
The Minority in Parliament has been asking the central bank to provide answers to questions relating to the new headquarters for the central bank.
The Minority is requesting, among other things, information on the processes involved in the procurement of the land for the construction of the new headquarters building.
They also want to know the names of consultants and project managers.
This was contained in a press statement issued by the Member of Parliament for Bawku Central Mahama Ayariga who is also a private legal practitioner.
In a press statement issued on Monday, August 21, Governor Addison explained that the Bank of Ghana, as far back as the 1990s began the search for suitable and secured land for a new Head office.
In 2012, he said, the Bank was allocated an unnumbered 5.19-acre land at Accra Central by the Lands Commission which also had issues.
The Bank did not have access to the land since the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration refused to give the Bank vacant possession on the grounds that they had never agreed to give up ownership of the land, the statement said, adding that the Bank continued to search for suitable land for its Head Office throughout the period from 2013 to 2016, he said.
“More recently in 2018, the Bank approached the SIC to acquire its vacant land at Ridge near the Ridge Hospital. The Government issued an Executive Instrument to allow the Bank of Ghana acquire that Land and SIC was duly compensated. The Bank then began to plan the building of its new Head Office, taking into consideration the need to ensure the building meets all the requirements of a modern central bank of international standards (similar to central bank head office buildings in Abuja and Dakar), and includes provision for data centers, currency processes, vaults, and other sensitive installation. It is not just a simple ordinary building,” he said.
He stressed “Let me re-emphasize that the Bank followed all the necessary public procurement processes in this endeavor. No procurement laws were broken. I have requested that a more detailed response to the issues raised in the public discourse on the Bank’s new Head Office building be published on our website immediately after this press engagement today.
“The decision to commence construction was taken in 2019 when the Bank generated profits.
“Appropriations for the Head Office were made each year from profits in 2019, 2020, and 2021. The project has therefore, been going on for over 3 years. The DDEP only took place in January 2023. If we were to be taking the decision today, building a legacy Head Office would not have been a priority.
“However, this is a project that has been running for 3 years and about 50 percent complete. The Bank is fully aware of its responsibilities to ensure that the costs do not escalate beyond reasonable levels and that many of the original design features, including data centre, currency processing centre, ICT equipment, specialized security features have been deferred and only grey boxes provided for future use to manage costs.”