The Western North communications bureau of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has demanded an investigation into the recently inaugurated Akontombra rice factory.
The Akontombra rice factory is a project under the One District One Factory (1D1F) policy.
It was commissioned last week by President Nana Akufo-Addo during his tour of the Western North Region.
This Akontombra factory is made up of two warehouses of which one contains the Husker machine and the other is used as a storage facility.
The NDC stated in a communiqué issued on Monday, September 13, 2021 that “the single most expensive thing in there is the husker machine which even doesn’t cost more than $185,00.00 which is equivalent to GHc 1,110,000.00. Even if both warehouses should cost GHc 500,000 each and the administration block costing GHc 300,000, it still won’t amount to the amount quoted to be the cost of the project. If we are to even add a GHc 90,000.00 cost of a generator plant to the cost, this will still amount to a total cost of GHc 3m and not Ghc6.7m. We have the quoted price for the Husker in our hands.”
The NDC in the Western North concludes in the communiqué by appealing to the office of the Special Prosecutor to commence an investigation into the allegation.
The party said it is yet to write to the Office of the Special Prosecutor and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to probe the matter.
READ THE COMMUNIQUE BELOW
WESTERN NORTH COMMUNICATION BUREAU- NDC
PROPER INVESTIGATION MUST BE CONDUCTED INTO THE GHC6.7M AKONTOMBRA RICE FACTORY UNDER THE ONE DISTRICT ONE FACTORY PROJECT IN THE WESTERN NORTH REGION
The 1D1F project as we all know was a manifesto promise by the Nana Addo-Bawumia government in their first term of governance. Under the 1D1F project, the duo promised to build at least one factory at each district of the Republic of Ghana for a period of four years.
This promise turned to be nothing but a hoax of which the opposition NDC exposed. However, the government argued otherwise irrespective of the glaring evidence which supported the claim and proposition of the NDC.
On the 5th of September, 2021, the President as part of his tour to the Western North commissioned a Ghc6.7m rice factory at Sefwi Akontombra as part of his achievement. In as much as we find this laughable, we suspect a daylight robbery of the people’s cash. The said factory has two warehouses of which one houses the machine(the Husker) and the other as storage where the processed rice are packed or stored. It also has one administration block and a canteen.
It is worthy of note that the singular most expensive thing there is the Husker machine which even doesn’t cost more than $185,000 which is equivalent to Ghc1,110,000.00. Even if the two warehouses should cost Ghc500,000 each and the administration block costing Ghc300,000 and Ghc200,000 for the canteen with the land and it documentation costing Ghc300,000, it still won’t amount to the amount quoted to be the cost of the project. If we are to even add a Ghc90,000 cost of a generator plant to the cost, this will amount to a total cost of Ghc3m and not Ghc6.7m. We have the quoted price for the Husker in our hands.
We are appealing to the Office of the Special Prosecutor to begin an immediate investigations into this allegation. However, we shall officially write to the OSP and CHRAJ to take up this matter. The good people of the Republic deserves better.
End
Sam Jerome
Regional Communication Officer, WN
13th September, 2021.
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By Richard Frimpong
