The acting Director of Surveys, Mr Wilson Kwasi Opoku, has stated that the maps the claimants from the flooded areas of the Volta Basin submitted to the Lands Commission for compensation were not authentic.
After inspecting the maps at the Judgement Debt Commission (JDC) sitting last Tuesday, he said most of the maps were not signed by licensed surveyors or the director of surveys.
The lands around the Volta River were flooded following the construction of the Akosombo Dam in 1965 and the communities which were affected were resettled by the state.
He said years after the resettlement, some clans in Pai, Apaaso, Makango, Ahmandi and Krachi traditional areas put in a claim for compensation from the state.
Consequently, Mr Opoku said, the Cabinet gave the approval on July 23, 2008 for a consolidated compensation totalling GH�138 million for the various clans and families in the affected areas.
About half of the GH�138 million compensation package had been paid to the various clans and families based on the maps submitted to the Land Valuation Division of the Lands Commission.
However, Mr Opoku told the commission that it was impossible for the claimants to draw their maps after their lands had been flooded.
He explained that licensed surveyors were supposed to do physical inspection of a land before a map could be prepared.
"A map can only be planned when you go to the land to do real physical survey," he said.
Mr Opoku again rejected the assertion by the claimants that they had made their respective maps from the original map at the Lands Commission.
"When maps are made from other maps, there must be an indication of the original map on the new one," he said, and indicated that their maps did not show any reference to the original map.
Baffling situation
"The whole situation is a bit baffling," Mr Opoku said, and indicated that officials of the Lands Valuation Division should have submitted the maps to the Survey Department for scrutiny before effecting payment.
"There was no way these plans could go through. The job has not been done properly," he said.
Sole Commissioner
Corroborating Mr Opoku's statement, the Sole Commissioner of the JDC, Mr Justice Yaw Apau, said most of the maps of the submerged lands in the Volta Basin were prepared by a technical assistant of a retired surveyor.
He said the retired surveyor, Mr Kojo Abbam, whose licence had been withdrawn, was bedridden when his technical assistant went ahead to prepare the maps for the various communities.
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