Chairman of the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, Samuel Atta-Akyea wants the contractor at the centre of the close to US$12 million paid for work that has not been done on the Pwalugu Multi-Purpose Dam to be queried.
Mr. Atta-Akyea, who raised concern about a possible dissipation of state resources, is also pushing for the consultant of the project to be interrogated.
“What is very critical for us to find out is who is this contractor who is alleged to have short-changed the people of Ghana of $12 million and yet the project has not taken off at all. Why is he not doing what is expected of him? The Consultant to the project, what’s his audit in relation to the application of the 12 million to the project?”
His call comes on the back of a visit to the project site in the North East Region by the Minority side of the Mines and Energy Committee.
The Ranking Member of the committee, John Jinapor, who led the Minority side to the site, described the payment as waste of state resources and indicated his side’s resolve to push for the retrieval of the monies paid.
He also took on the government for using the project as a vote grabbing tool and called on the Vice-President and flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, who is a native of the area, to honour his promise to his people.
But speaking in an interview on Joy FM in Accra, Mr. Atta-Akyea, admonished against politicization of the matter.
While describing the payment as embarrassing, he indicated that Parliament will probe the matter and particularly hold the contractor as well as the consultant accountable.
“I will start to find the contractor, Parliament will find the contractor and begin to get a proper committee to look into this matter because it is, if it is true, embarrassing and we are bleeding the nation if someone can fret away $12 million and he is not applied the money to a very critical project of consequences to this country” .
