These projects, which after completion would have housed 4,700 families, are sited at Borteiman near Accra; Kpone near Tema; Asokore-Mampong in the Ashanti Region; Koforidua in the Eastern Region; Wa in the Upper West Region and Tamale in the Northern Region.
These housing projects were at various levels of completion when the Kufuor-led government gave way to that of Professor John Evans Atta Mills on January 7, 2009.Even though we kept being reminded that there is a major housing deficit in the country, the projects were abandoned under the proverbial excuse that there was no money.
There was a general suspicion that the abandoned projects were victims of a cruel culture that has dominated our political system from time immemorial, whereby projects initiated by a previous government are suffocated to death by a new one, if that would deny the former any glory.
The lack of funds becomes a facade behind which this cynical type of politics is practised to the detriment of the progress of the country.The suspicion in the case of these abandoned housing projects blossomed further when a government that could not raise approximately GH¢100 million to complete them decided to embark upon a more ambitious housing project involving a huge amount of US$10 billion with STX Korea and ignored what had already been started with state resources.
Under the STX Housing Project, it was envisaged to add about 100,000 housing units to the country's stock, with about a third going to the security services.The nation would have benefited a lot had the project been able to go through its full cycle.
Unfortunately, the project ran into difficulties and was finally abandoned.Under the circumstances, the nation suffered on two fronts.It lost the multi-billion project which the government had put so much trust in and the abandoned projects which could have filled the yawning housing gap in the country.
The abandoned housing projects are not the only ones that require reactivation and completion.They are just a few in a long line of abandoned projects dotted all over the country, some dating back to the First Republic under Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah.They include silos that were started by the Nkrumah regime for food storage and other such purposes but had been left to rot.
The regime of General I.K Acheampong also initiated an ambitious programme to provide office accommodation to the Ghana Police Service at all the regional headquarters.To date,none has been completed.Meanwhile, the service, which has expanded in scope and numbers, is crying for accommodation, both office and residential.
The various cultural centres started in all the regional capitals have still not been completed, even though the annual cultural festivals have remained regular fixtures on the nation's calendar.
There are many office buildings, road projects and many others that have been abandoned midway after so much public funds have been spent on them.It will be in our national interest if the government will set up a special task force to identify these projects and take immediate steps to complete them.
By Kofi Akordor/Daily Graphic/Ghana
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