The Obuasi Metropolitan Municipal Chief Executive, Elijah Adansi-Bonah, has welcomed any independent probe from any entity which deals with construction, over accusations that he inflated the cost of projects of the assembly.
The MCE has been accused by some assembly members and residents of the municipality of overpricing certain projects.
Notable among the accusers is the assembly member for Kunka electoral area, Mr Stephen Osei.
He accused the MCE of using an amount of GHS130,000 in constructing a fence wall around his residence and using GHS71,312.40 to refurbish a 4.70-km road from Mamiwira to Abaamu, among other allegations.
Also, an ordinary resident, Kingsford Boakye, accused the MCE of spending GHS198,000 to paint a building.
Reacting to these accusations on Accra FM on Monday, 8 October 2018, Mr Adansi-Bonah explained that in 2016, the assembly decided to fence his residence after thieves broke into his home.
He noted that the accusations that he inflated figures for the construction of the wall are “lies.”
According to him, he has a police report recommending the construction of the wall after the burglary.
Mr Adansi-Bonah added that officials from the Works Department of the Assembly and some quantity surveyors quoted the GHS130,000 figure for the construction of the fence wall after they had done their assessment, and, so, it cannot be true that the budget for the fencing had been inflated.
“The document, which is circulating that the budget for the fencing of the wall is too huge is not true. This is a public document of which everyone who came to the Assembly meeting was given a copy. If you go to the Public Procurement Authority’s website, the document is there, so, this is not a secret, we followed the processes that we had to follow to award the contract,” he stated.
Mr Adansi-Bonah dared anyone who believes he has inflated the cost of the projects to bring an engineer or quantity surveyor to do their own assessment to confirm how much it would cost to construct the fence wall or any other project for that matter.
“No one has taken an independent quantity surveyor to do any new estimate to confirm anything about the fence wall. We all went to school, we know a hundred-metre wall but the wall they are talking about is more than a hundred metres, it is almost 200 metres. If you look at the way they did the wall, it shows that no one has inflated any figure. So, if the Auditor-General wants value-for-money as we have been saying, or any entity in Ghana which deals with investigations in constructions wants to probe the matter, my doors are open,” he said.
Mr Adansi-Bonah suspects his detractors are up to no good.
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