Residents of Kukuo, a suburb of the Tamale South Constituency are totally angry with the ruling government for “deliberately” abandoning a 4 million dollar multi-purpose jubilee market project initiated by the immediate past government.
The Project which was awarded on contract to the China State Hualong Construction Company in the late 2007 and was expected to be completed in June 2010 is one of the huge projects designed in commemoration of the Ghana@50 in the Tamale Metropolis.
According to the members of the Kukuo Community, the President, John Agyekum Kufuor himself cut the sod for the commencement of the huge project and told the people to monitor the project keenly and also offer the needed support to the contractors, but the market project had been unjustifiably abandoned.
At the moment, the contractors have packed their equipments and moved from the site leaving the whole 4 kilometre square land flooded with weeds.
The Assemblyman for Kukuo Electoral Area, Alhassan Rashid told the savannahnews that the project was very dear to people because it was going to reduce their stress of commuting for far distances to shop, but it had now suffered a setback since this government took over. According to him, several petitions and complains had been made to the authorities at the Tamale Metro Assembly had not yielded any positive results.
The Assembly noted that the project apart from giving a facelift to the community, it was also giving employment to over 100 youth but now all of the were idling.
One of the opinion leaders in the community, one Mr. Ishawu complained that uncompleted structures and stalls had become a haven for wee smokers whiles butchers had also taken advantage of the situation to slaughter their animals.
However, a check by the paper at the offices of Architectural and Engineering Services Limited (AESL), the project consultants revealed that the contract agreement specified that 20% mobilisation ought to be paid in two instalments and two certificates had already been prepared by the contractors to cover the 20% of work done from foundation to floor slab.
The contractors according to AESL, were paid only the 1st instalment before the end of 2008, but the subsequent payment had not seen any approval from the ruling government.
Several attempts to get the balance of the mobilization for certificates submitted by the contractors did not see any better response from the government and this according to the consultants had compelled the contractors to temporally pack from site.
Meanwhile, the Kukuo residents told the blogger that the China State Hualung Construction Company were very serious on the job and even managed to reach the super structure level of two of the storey buildings but suddenly left the site.
Several efforts to contact the Tamale Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), Alhaji Haruna Abdulai Friday and the Northern Regional Minister, Moses Bukari Mabengba proved unsuccessful.
But the Public Affairs Director of the Tamale Assembly, Mr. Salifu Issah Musah admitted in a telephone interview that the Kukuo Market Project had been abandoned by the contractors due to lack of funds.
According to him, neither he nor the MCE could offer detail information about the project because the tendering and awarding processes were done by the Northern Regional Coordinating Council since it was above the capacities of the assembly, even though it was owned by it. The Public Affairs Director therefore directed the paper to the RCC for detail information.
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