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In November, last year, Ghanaians woke up to gory images of the the collapsed Melcom building which claimed 13 lives and left more than 81 people injured. The once vibrant shopping centre had since been declared as �Ground Zero� as there is virtually no business activity there. The six-storey building, which allegedly had no permit from the AMA, collapsed at exactly 09. 45a.m. shortly before it was opened to the public for the commencement of the day's business. It was reported that members of staff, numbering about 54, including some shoppers and passersby, were buried under the rubble of the building. This threw the country into a state of shock and also disrupted the plans of President John Dramani Mahama, who was then standing for re-election, as he cut short a campaign visit to the Northern Region, to tour the disaster site. The blame game Following the incident, a number of individuals and experts criticised the management of Melcom, while others accepted the blame. Among those who accepted the blame was the Safety Coordinator at Melcom, Mr Eric Twum Osei, who said he could have prevented the disaster from happening because he had noticed that the building was weak after visiting the place several times. His claims were, accordingly, confirmed by some surviving staff of the mall who said they noticed cracks in some of the pillars three days earlier and reported this to their supervisors. For his part, a Consumer Rights Advocate, Mr Kofi Capito, warned that a tragedy far more devastating than the Melcom disaster would befall the country, if measures were not put in place to ensure strict compliance with building codes. He said there were standards regarding how buildings should be constructed and what materials were to be used, stressing that while many developers flagrantly ignored these standards, authorities mandated to enforce them were also not doing their jobs. But the Director of Testing Division at the Ghana Standards Authority, Kwabena Acheampong, explained that the organisation was only mandated to set the standards for which products were to be used in every endeavour, including building and construction. The findings The Ghana Institute of Engineers (GhIE) set up an 11-member committee to investigate the incident and they identified lack of adequate reinforcement in the columns of the Melcom Shopping Complex as one of the factors which led to the collapse of the building. Additionally, the institute said the concrete strength was very low and the situation was further compounded by an additional screed depth of 100mm on each floor which imposed an extra loading on the building structure. The President of the GhIE, Professor Samuel Innocent Kofi Ampadu, in a report said the situation described in the Melcom building represented similar situations in hundreds of other buildings, not only in Accra, but in many other cities and towns in the country. Prof. Ampadu expressed regret that recommendations made by the institution following the collapse of a building in Kumasi in 2007, had not been carried out, adding, �Five years ago, we had this disaster. Are we going to wait for another disaster before we carry out these recommendations?� Lessons learnt so far When the Daily Graphic caught up with the National Coordinator of NADMO, Mr Kofi Portuphy, he explained that the disaster undoubtedly revealed some of the things that the organisation needed to carry out its mandate during such moments. He said the situation brought to the fore the need for the organisation to have some equipment to assist with first-response activities before asking other stakeholders to help. �Because if we had had our own equipment and had begun the recovery activities of rescuing victims earlier, some lives would have been saved,� he said. Some of these equipment, he said, were powerful flashlights to work in the night, vehicles, lasser equipment to detect survivors, security dogs, and the necessary finance to operate during emergencies, among others. He, therefore, suggested the recruitment and training of more police personnel so that when such disasters occur, they could help cordon the site and provide security for the agencies that were collaborating in the operations. Management of Melcom The Director of Communication for Melcom, Mr Godwin Avenorgbo, said the company now had a policy in place to first conduct a structural integrity test before a decision was finally made to rent any premises. �If the lessons of the past are anything to go by, then we want to assure fellow Ghanaians that these tests have become part of our permanent criteria with regard to our acquisition or development of landed property for business operations,� he said. On compensations, Mr Avenorgbo said all the legally recognised families of the 13 who lost their lives had been duly compensated through the Labour Department, �with the exception of one person on the injured list who was yet to undergo the required medical examination to enable the Labour Department to conclude the compensation package.� Responding to the extent of the company�s loss after the disaster, Mr Avernorgbo said,� the loss of lives of as many as 13 of our hardworking staff; loss of goods and equipment; loss of business and service to a large number of population, cannot be quantified.� He added that the company had since taken the issue of staff welfare more seriously, and added that all staff of the former Achimota branch had been posted to other branches. Also, he said the company had set up a scholarship scheme to sponsor the children of the victims, and constituted an Education Committee to manage the scholarship scheme for qualified children.