<<Print>>

Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) has been slapped with a fine of one hundred and forty thousand United States dollars (US$140,000) for delaying a process at the ongoing Tema Port Expansion Project.

The fine, according to sources, was as result of GPHA’s failure to evacuate the Ave Maria Beach Resort which is situated within the expansion project site.

Some works at the Tema Port Expansion Project, which is scheduled to receive its first ship in February 2019, has been halted due to the inability of GPHA management to evacuate the beach resort.

“All attempts made to evacuate this resort have failed, because of a political hand backing operators of the Ave Maria Beach Resort.”

The Ave Maria Beach Resort, formerly the Ave Maria Club House, was built by Mr. Parkinson Hayward, a member of Sir William Halcrow and partners, the general port plan and constructors of Tema Port in 1954. It served as a leisure centre for the construction workers until they left after the completion of the port.

The facility has since been and remained the property of the GPHA. On 14th January, 2002 GPHA leased the facility to Mrs. Theresa Efua Ntim to manage it for a period of 25 years, while the GPHA still looked for funds to expand the port.

In 2014, the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority signed a contract agreement worth 1.5 billion US dollars with the International Financial Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group to facilitate the Tema Port Expansion Project.

The project covers about 1.5 acres of the GPHA land along the south western part of Tema to the Gulfstream.