CONTRACTOR PAID FOR NO WORK DONE? (PAGE 11)

ALTHOUGHT payment was made for a two-classroom Kindergarten(KG) block for Kabrono in the Banda Ahenkro Traditional Area, the project was never executed.
A parcel of land purported to have been released by the chiefs and elders of the town which is in the Tain District of the Brong Ahafo Region, cannot even be located.
This came to light when the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Mr Ahmed Ibrahim, in the company of the District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Samuel Jones Tawiah, paid a working visit to the area to inspect some development projects.
Records available at the Tain District Assembly and the District Directorate of Education office indicate that the project only existed on paper.
The records also indicate that the project was to have been initiated and executed by the former MP for the area, Mr Joe Danquah, with an amount of GH¢ 25,000 from the MPs share of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund).
A memoradum dated November 28, 2008 on the letterhead of the former MP and signed by him titled “Release of GETfund (GH¢ 25,000) to the Tain District Director of Education” read “ Gratefully, release an amount of GH¢25,000 being my constituency’s share of the GETfund for 2006 and 2007 to M/SA.A Wanchan Limited for the construction of a KG block at Kabrono.
It further stated that Mr Rahaman Mohammed, the Managing Director of the company, was mandated to collect the cheque on behalf of the company.
According to sources at the Tain District Education Directorate, a cheque for GH¢ 25,000 was released to the contractor, Mr Mohammed, by the District Director of Education, who promised to deliver the project, but as at the time of the visit to the community by the MP and the DCE, the KG block could not be traced.
At a meeting held between some of the community leaders, the MP and the DCE, some of the chiefs and leaders who were to see to the construction of the two classroom block and an office which was to be initated by the former MP were divided on the issue.
Information gathered indicated that the classrooms and the office were not built at all by the contractor and the schoolchildren still held their classes under a tree.
The Unit Committee Chairman for the area, Mr Fofie Andrews, who was present at the meeting, revealed that the MP rather supported the community with Gh¢1,000 towards the construction of a KG block initiated by the community, in conjunction with the Presbyterian Church of Ghana.
He said after the community and the church had completed the project for use, a severe rainstorm, which hit the community, ripped off the roof of the building and also destroyed part of the building, making it dangerous for the children to have classes in it.
Mr Andrews, therefore, debunked an assertion that the structure built by the community was the one that the MP initiated, and said they heard about that project to be executed by the former MP but nothing was done.
However, the Akyeamehene of the community, Nana Kwaku Boramu, had a different view, and told the meeting that the project initiated by the former MP existed, but could not show or lead the sitting MP, the DCE, newsmen and some members of the community to the KG block alleged to have been built by the former MP.