Architects reveal that Parliament has violated public procurement laws in a new deal with the chamber

General News of Wednesday, July 10, 2019

Source: ghanacrusader.com

2019-07-10

It appeared that the Ghanaian Parliament, led by Professor Mike Aaron Ocquaye, was lawless in the treatment of the procurement process in order to obtain the architectural design of the proposed new chamber.

In a statement to the press, the Institute of Architects of Ghana (GIA) revealed that they were part of a "group of experts to rule on the design of the new building of the House of Parliament ".

The coordination group of all architects in Ghana described the process as a whole as a "flagrant violation".

"During the presentation of the 3 entities that had to compete, we realized a gross infringement. One of the bids comes from a Chinese construction company and, in accordance with public procurement laws, a construction company is not eligible, "reveals the GIA release signed by the US secretary. Augustus Richardson.

The prototype concept conceived of the proposed new chamber
The statement also reads as follows: "This raised questions about the restrictive selection process being undertaken by Parliament. The parliamentary representative informed us that we could not be aware of this information. All she wanted was to decide on the 2 remaining files in order to choose a winner because they were against the clock and had to start the project of the room. "

The new $ 200 million parliamentary chamber has sparked heated debate and anger among citizens, many of them challenging the government's priorities.

Although the Acting Director of Public Affairs of Parliament, Kate Addo, announced that the project was being set aside, the architects joined the fray in a new battle. Their concerns about the questioning of the procurement procedure used are part of a general problem facing architects in the country. They lamented that for nearly two years they have been asking the authorities to institute a board of directors of the Architects Registration Board (ARC), but to no avail.

The Institute of Architects of Ghana (GIA) derives its constitutional power from the NLCD 357 Architects Act 1969 and needs a board of directors to regulate the activities of architects and protect the public interest.

GIA says that "… the recent announcement of the construction of the new House of Parliament, which has sparked a public outcry, is a clear example of this contempt of the institute and the need for the board of directors. administration of the ARC.

"Suffice it to say that on the issue of creating a new chamber for Ghana's parliament, if there had been a board of directors, this one would have given advice on alternative solutions to the challenges raised in support of the project. We believe that the powers in place may have deliberately denied their responsibility to deploy a new board to allow some of these very irregular activities to prevail, "said the architects.

They also advised the Parliament to respect the Public Procurement Law No. 914 of 2016 to ensure transparency, equal opportunities and fairness.

That President Mike Ocquaye and his ilk, parliamentarians who make laws for all Ghanaians to obey, accept this warning from the Institute of Architects of Ghana and scrupulously respect the laws on public procurement!