The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has denied breaching the procurement laws in the construction of its new headquarters located at Ridge in the Greater Accra region.
According to the bank, it secured all the required approvals from the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) before commencing the construction.
The Head of Research at the BoG, Dr. Philip Abradu-Otoo disclosed this on News Night on Joy FM with Evans Mensah on August 17, 2023.
Dr. Abradu-Otoo assured that the central bank will soon release details and all the necessary documents covering the construction of the headquarters.
“All necessary approvals were obtained from the PPA, we broke no procurement law”, he stressed.
Background
The BoG’s response follows allegations by the Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzato Abalkwa, suggesting that the cost of the building has been inflated from US$81 million to $250 million.
Mr. Ablakwa has also rejected claims that the process to construct the building commenced under the erstwhile National Democratic Congress government.
In addition, the North Tongu MP raised issues about serious governance breaches with the project.
Concerns of Procurement Breaches
However, responding to the issues, Dr. Abradu-Otoo insisted that the PPA was involved in evaluating all the documents covering the building.
“As a transparent and law-abiding Institution, we operate within the laws of the country”, he maintained.
Dr. Abradu-Otoo also defended the BoG’s decision to use Restricted Tendering Procurement Method, stating that it was justified, evaluated and approved by the PPA.
He reiterated that details of the entire process will soon be released to clear all doubts in the public domain.
Bank of Ghana on justification of Headquarters
The Bank of Ghana has already explained that a structural integrity assessment conducted on its current headquarters in the Central Business District of Accra showed that the office, which was built in 1960 is no longer fit for purpose.
The central bank added that the building can’t no longer stand any major earth tremors.
The bank in statement, released noted that “the outcome of the structural integrity work was that the main building does not satisfy the full complement of excess strength required for a building to be considered safe for usage”.
The bank also said that the Board and Management considered a new Head Office building as the most important priority project to support the operational efficiency of the bank, and also put the Bank of Ghana in a very good position to be the host of the Regional Central Bank as it currently host the West African Monetary Institute (WAMI) of the Sub region.,
