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| STX Korea lacks funding for housing project – Haruna Iddrisu |
8/28/2011 |
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With the dust yet to settle on the boardroom wrangling between the Ghanaian and Korean partners involved in the STX housing project, the Member of Parliament for Tamale South and Minister for Communication, Haruna Iddrisu has disclosed that the Korean partners are not forthcoming with the needed funding to execute the project.
Speaking on Multi TV and Joy FM’s news analysis programme, NEWSFILE, the Communications Minister indicated that “Stx [as one entity], was seeking to change even the sovereign guarantee into a commodity swap [to] which government said no, the requirement which you brought for parliament to approve was not for commodity or oil. It was for sovereign guarantee.”
According to him, “the truth is [that] the Koreans are not forthcoming with the funding as expected and that is undermining the early and immediate implementation of the project.”
“I have recommended somewhere that in the event that government raises [the] money, we can engage real estate developers in Ghana. Our commitment is to provide housing to the Ghanaian people. If we raise the money, we will not give it to the Koreans except in a situation where they want to work with government and allow government to play a lead”, he added.
Mr. Iddrisu said he was confident the Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing would be able to resolve the ongoing wrangling between the two partners.
But his optimism about a resolution to the impasse between the two partners was not shared by his minority colleague, Dominic Nitiwul, Member of Parliament for Bimbilla.
Mr. Nitiwul who was also on the show, called on government to abrogate the contract with STX Korea.
“Government should abrogate that contract, and move on to other partners, because at the end of the day, what the people of Ghana want is not a house from Korea or America. They want houses, so if government is committed to providing houses and we believe that the boardroom wrangling, the inability to work tighter, the fact that they cannot find funding… they should abrogate the contract and move on to give other people the opportunity. After all, GREDA said given the same conditions they could provide the house,” Mr. Nitiwul argued.
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