Former Works and Housing Minister Collins Dauda and four others who have been accused of causing financial loss to the state over the Saglemi Housing project have pleaded not guilty to the charges levelled against them.
The former Minister and the fours have been dragged before the High Court in Accra responding, to 52 counts of charges including, causing financial loss to the state.
They are facing charges of Intentionally misapplying public property, causing financial loss to the state and issuing false certificates in the Saglemi Affordable Housing project, which involved the sum of $200m.
Meanwhile, he has been granted a self recognisance bail.
The High Court granted the bail at the request of the Attorney General and Minister of justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame.
In his submission, he told the court, Alhaji Dauda is the only public officer among the accused persons and does not pose any risk in the trial of the matter.
However, he prayed to the court to order him to deposit his passport to the registry of the court.
His lawyer, Thadeus Sory, opposed the request of depositing his passport to the court arguing that Collins Dauda is a member of the Pan African Parliament and will need his passport for frequent travels.
But the AG stated that the passport should be deposited but added he will not be denied access to his passport anytime he wants to travel.
Charges
The basis for the financial loss charges is for various payments made to companies involved in the project like Construtuora OAS Ghana Limited, VHM Ghana Ltd, Architectural and Engineering Services Limited and Vitor Hugo-Coordencaao e Gestao de Projecto.
According to the facts of the case, $196,428,891.66 has been spent on the Saglemi Affordable Housing Project, with the contractor having been paid $179,904,757.78 but investigations revealed that the cost of works executed on the site, including consultancy services, was about $64,982,900.77.
In addition, only 651.75 acres of land out of the 2,172 acres of land made available by the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing to the contractor for the project has been developed.
Investigations further revealed that only 668 housing units were completed by the contractor.
These houses have been described as inhabitable and not a single house under the project has been sold and the Facility remains unpaid, resulting in huge financial loss to the Republic of Ghana.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com
