The frontage and some aspects of the Council of State Office building, near the Parliament House in Accra, are to be pulled down and rebuilt at an estimated cost of GH¢6million.
This is because the building, completed in 2016 at the cost of GH¢4.6 million, is said to have been constructed out of plan and unfit for purpose due to challenges including insufficient space in the meeting room.
The Acting Executive Secretary to the Council, Stephen Blay, told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament in Accra on Wednesday that the communication system in the room deprived them of privacy during meetings, while the facility also lacked a sewage system and private places of convenience.
“In 2017 when the 7th council took office it was discovered that the building was put up out of plan. The edifice over there doesn’t have a single suitable meeting room. The council is a 31-member council but the meeting room in the building has a capacity for only 15 people.
“Apart from that, the sewage system was never done. Then the communication system, when you are at the top and you talk, when people are on the ground floor, they hear all the things that you are saying. So the council felt it wasn’t appropriate to occupy it at that time,” he said.
Mr Blay appeared before the committee to answer questions emanating from the 2021 Auditor-General report on Ministries, Departments and Agencies, which noted that the council building remained unoccupied.
He said in 2017 when the council realised that the building, constructed and supervised by the Public Works Department was not suitable it invited the Ghana Institute of Architects to inspect, resulting in the conclusion that the building needed to be remodelled.
Mr Blay said the model was planned for somewhere between 2018 and 2019, but the idea was shelved when the drop-that-chamber campaign was ongoing, and the atmosphere was not conducive to pull down part of the building.
He said in 2021 the council submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Finance asking for GH¢6million for the remodeling of the building which was approved but it was not released.
He said in July last year the council revisited the remodelling idea and had since spoken to the Chief of Staff and the Ministry of Finance with proposals on remodelled structures and a budget submitted to the latter for consideration.
The chairman of the committee, Dr James Avedzi, expressed concern about the situation and requested Mr Blay to submit a copy of the assessment report to the committee.
The Member of Parliament for Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem, Samuel Atta Mills, suggested that instead of pulling part of the building down it should be given to the Zongo Development Fund which is looking for an office building and was spending close to GH¢60,000 a month on rent.
He suggested that a new building should be constructed for the Council of State, a suggestion which Mr Blay said he would communicate to the council for consideration.
BY JONATHAN DONKOR