Probe cost of Veep bungalow - Surveyors
The Ghana Institution of Surveyors (GhIS) has called for an independent enquiry into the construction cost of the proposed residential building for the Vice-President.
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According to the GhIS, it was ready to assist any entity appointed with its expertise to objectively appraise the project.
In a press release signed by the President of the GhIS, Mr Emmanuel Tetteh Martey, it said alternatively, the government could mandate the GhIS to do a procurement and/or technical audit of the project and advise on it.
It said the GhIS, while calling for a thorough investigation into the matter by an independent technical committee, “will like to assure all Ghanaians that as a professional body with global affiliations and alliances, we will follow this particular issue to its logical conclusion as the ethical dimensions of conduct and attitudes towards practices must be uppermost.”
Background
The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, started a public discussion when he expressed shock at the $13.9 million cost of the project and wondered if aspects of the building were going to be made of gold.
He is on record to have suggested that if the project had gone through competitive tendering, the cost of the project would have been far lower.
Dr Bawumia’s assertions were, however, denied by former presidential staffers and the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, who gave different figures lower than what the Vice-President quoted.
However, the Director of Communications of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akomea, recently provided a document from the Architectural and Engineering Services Limited (AESL) to confirm the claim by Dr Bawumia.
GhIS’ view
According to the GhIS, professional surveyors were enjoined to observe the highest standards of ethics during the execution of duties and avoid corruption and fraudulent, collusive and prohibited practices.
They should further avoid the greatest challenges and threats emanating from conflict of interest.
It said the GhIS shall respond to the outcomes of the investigations whether it (GhIS) performed it or it was undertaken by any other body mandated to do so.
The press release stated that the GhIS, being the umbrella professional institute for Quantity Surveyors (QS), Land Surveyors (LS) and Valuation and Estate Surveyors (VES) in the country, had followed with keen interest the revelations of the project cost and the ensuing public discourse for the past few weeks.
Professional competence
It added that members in the Quantity Surveying Division of GhIS had the requisite and key professional competencies in many areas such as procurement management for works, goods and services contracts, cost prediction in forecasting and planning, cost and price analysis of actual inputs and outputs during execution.
The GhIS added, “It is believed that the original project cost and any associated variations can be best appreciated when all issues connected with the procurement process are interrogated.”