<<Print>>

Government has finally admitted that the controversial multi-billion dollar STX Housing project is a mirage. Employment and Social Welfare Minister, E.T. Mensah, who disclosed this in Accra, however gave the assurance that the Mills-led administration will do all it can to recover investments and assets it initially provided to execute the project. According to him, government has already started moves to repossess all the 15 sites handed over to the company for construction works. Though it is unclear how much government invested in the aborted project, the Ningo Prampram MP disclosed that the Attorney General and Minister for Justice has been directed to look into the details of the contract signed with STX and advice government on the next course of action. Hon E.T Mensah was addressing a press conference on the status of the housing project a short while ago. The US$10 billion STX housing project out of which $1. 5 billion was to have been used to build 30,000 housing units for Ghana�s security agencies hit a snag following boardroom and courtroom wrangling between both parties - STX Ghana and STX Korea. The Employment and Social Welfare Minister stressed that the collapse of the deal does not mean government has ended its search to find means of providing housing facilities for the security agencies, adding that a Housing Project Management Committee with a �mandate to receive and review all proposals on housing� has been set up within the ministry which is thoroughly looking into 40 proposals presented by private housing companies to build affordable houses for government workers. ��the 40 proposals have been whittled down to four but�we will not make any �noise� about it (with the bitter experience from STX government fresh on our minds)...Government is therefore considering all available options to ensure that the interest of sovereign Ghana is not compromised in anyway under this deal...In due course, government will present to you the specific steps that are being taken to ensure that the housing required for our security personnel is provided,� he said. Government reached an agreement with STX Engineering & Construction Limited, Korea through its subsidiary in Ghana, for the construction of 200,000 houses in Ghana within a period of five years, estimated at $10 billion. In August 2010, Parliament approved an initial off-take agreement for 30,000 housing units for the security agencies at a proportionate cost of $1.5 billion. But ever since President John Evans Atta Mills cut the sod on Thursday, January 27, 2011 at the Police Training Depot at Tesano in Accra for the commencement of the project, boardroom wrangling between the Ghanaian company and their Korean partners had ensured that not a single block was laid even though a land at Kwabenya in Accra was purportedly cleared for that purpose. The head office of STX Engineering and Construction Ghana Limited at Airport Residential Area, Accra, was at a point in time, offered for rent while office furniture and vehicles were put up for sale.