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Oil funded projects in three Northern Regions do not exist – PIAC

An inspection of oil-funded projects by the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) in the 3 regions of the north has disclosed that nothing exists.

According to the Chairman of PIAC, Dr Steve Manteaw said this has caused the committee to begin compiling a list of ‘Ghost projects’ after which they will engage the Auditor General for further investigation.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Dr Manteaw said: “Six projects were inspected in the Upper East, Upper West and Northern regions [and] the findings and observations were overwhelming with fifty percent of the projects being nonexistent.”

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He added that their interaction with indigenes of the regions during “our district engagement in about sixty districts later in 2016, concerns were raised as to whether PIAC verifies projects which have been reported by the Ministry of Finance to have been undertaken with Petroleum revues.”

He said “over fifty percent of school projects inspected showed signs of serious deterioration in less than three years after completion” including a six-unit classroom block Apedwa SDA primary school in the East Akim District of the Eastern region which has begun to sink due to poor siting and shoddy work.

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In a 2013 report on the management of Petroleum revenues by PIAC, an amount of GH¢372.07 million out of the GH¢543.78 million of the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) representing 68.42 percent was spent on roads and other infrastructure.

Also, according to the report, the remaining GH¢287.20 million representing 35 percent of the ABFA allocation was spent on several infrastructural sectors including energy, education, water, housing, security and health.

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