Complete ongoing infrastructural projects
In 2021 when the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who was also acting as the caretaker Minister of Finance, presented the budget in Parliament, he said the Akufo-Addo-led government was determined to end the practice of one government abandoning projects started by predecessors because the practice was not only wrong, but also a major worry to all citizens.
We couldn’t agree more and we fully support that stance.
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We also appreciate the fact that right after the budget presentation, the Majority and Minority Leaders in Parliament reignited discussions on the completion of projects left by previous regimes during a two-day post-2021 budget workshop for MPs in Ho.
We agree with Messrs Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu and Haruna Iddrisu that some development projects started by previous governments but which were abandoned by successive ones have cost the nation a fortune and we, therefore, need a national conversation on how to continue projects in that category.
We find it amazing that in this day and age, there is no police barracks in Sunyani, as reported in the January 8, 2022 edition of the Daily Graphic, although we have the police stationed in the Bono regional capital.
While the reason for that makes some meaning, it is unacceptable – more than 10 storey buildings started in the 1970s to provide accommodation for police personnel in Sunyani are not only still uncompleted but have also been abandoned.
The multi-million accommodation projects which are at various stages of completion are rotting away and weeds and trees have taken over the facilities.
Therefore, policemen in the area have over the years had no choice but to compete with civilians in renting the limited accommodation in the municipality, a situation that also works against effective policing.
The Sunyani Police are not alone when it comes to uncompleted accommodation projects. Incidentally, a Ghana News Agency report some time ago also highlighted four residential housing projects meant for the police in Agona Swedru, in the Central Region that had been abandoned since the 1970s while parts of the land had been encroached on.
there are other infrastructural projects which have been left to the vagaries of the weather, the huge investments notwithstanding.
In the October 30, 2021 edition of the Daily Graphic, we reported that a gigantic regional library project which was started in Sunyani 18 years ago was yet to be completed.
Thus, the 600-seating capacity library for secondary and tertiary students, which is also expected to have a children’s, reference and lending libraries; an information and communications technology (ICT) centre, conference rooms and a secretariat for the regional librarian and staff, was wasting away.
This trend of abandoning projects to us is not the best. We cannot continue to invest hugely in projects expected to benefit the masses, only for them to be abandoned for whatever reasons.
we urge the release of funds to complete all hanging projects across the country and let us ensure that we do not continue this vicious circle which does not benefit the country.