PHOTOS: Proposed Vice-Presidential Villa abandoned for 13 years after over $2.4m spent

Behind a high wall in Cantonments, one of Accra’s most expensive neighbourhoods, three unfinished structures stand among overgrown weeds.

They were meant to become the official residence of Ghana’s Vice-President. Construction was expected to take 18 months.

Thirteen years later, the residence remains unfinished and unoccupied.

Documents obtained by The Fourth Estate show that Mahama’s first government paid the contractor more than US$2.4 million within five months of work beginning. But conflicting official and political accounts have since placed the project’s cost at between US$3.56 million and almost US$14 million.

The prolonged abandonment has left taxpayers without clear answers about how much has been spent, why the project stalled and whether the site can still be used for its intended purpose.

US$2.4 million paid within five months

On October 10, 2013, the government of President John Mahama awarded CONSAR Limited a contract to build an official residence for the Vice-President.

Construction began on November 3 that year.

Records from Architectural and Engineering Services Limited (AESL), the project consultant, put the original contract sum at US$3,563,884.50. The residence was expected to be completed by May 2015.

By April 11, 2014, however, the government had paid CONSAR Limited US$2,425,752.21.

The payment represented about 68% of the original contract sum and was made within the first five months of a project scheduled to take a year and a half.

It is unclear why more than two-thirds of the contract amount was paid so early or how much work had been completed at the time.

According to AESL, construction stalled after the change of government following the 2016 elections. By then, the May 2015 completion deadline had already passed by more than a year.

Three figures for one unfinished project

The uncertainty surrounding the project extends beyond the missed completion date. There is still no publicly reconciled account of its total cost.

AESL records obtained by The Fourth Estate state that the original contract was worth US$3,563,884.50. The documents do not show that this amount was formally revised.

Vice Presidential Villa abandoned for 13 years after over $ 2.4 million spent

Yet at least three markedly different figures have been associated with the project.

In 2017, then Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia questioned reports that the residence would cost US$13.9 million.

Nana Akomea, then communications director of the governing New Patriotic Party, subsequently presented what he said was an AESL document showing a total project cost of about US$13.97 million.

According to that document, US$8,179,138.95 had already been spent, while US$5,789,113.71 remained outstanding.

The then opposition National Democratic Congress disputed that account.

Clement Apaak, the MP for Builsa South, told Starr FM in February 2017 that the Mahama administration had budgeted US$5.9 million for the residence, not the US$13.9 million cited by Dr Bawumia.

“US$5.9 million is what has been budgeted for the putting up of the Vice-President’s residence and not US$13 million,” he said.

Mr Apaak added that former Vice-President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur had briefed Dr Bawumia about the project and told him that no further payments had been made.

The competing accounts left three figures attached to the same unfinished residence: the original contract sum of US$3.56 million, the US$5.9 million the NDC said had been budgeted, and the nearly US$14 million cited by Dr Bawumia and Mr Akomea.

Thirteen years after construction began, the government has yet to provide a clear public account reconciling those figures.

No longer be fit for purpose?

The delay may also have created a more serious problem the authorities may not have thought of.

A government official familiar with the project told The Fourth Estate, on condition of anonymity, that the area surrounding the compound had changed considerably since construction began.

Several multi-storey apartment buildings have been constructed nearby, some of them overlooking the proposed residence.

The official said these developments could pose security risks and may have made the property unsuitable as the official home of the Vice-President.

Even if the government resumes construction, it may have to determine whether the original design and location still meet the security requirements of the country’s second-highest political office.

For now, the buildings remain behind the walls of the overgrown compound: unfinished, unused and without a definitive public account of how much they have cost.

The project’s condition leaves three unanswered questions. How much has the state spent? Why was the residence never completed? And, after 13 years of change around it, can it still serve the purpose for which millions of dollars have already been spent?

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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.