Government plans taking-back STX allocated lands

Government has taken steps to repossess lands allocated to STX Housing Project, Mr Enoch Teye Mensah, Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, announced on Wednesday at a press conference in Accra.

He added that Government had advised the relevant agencies to withhold any benefit that would accrue to the STX project.

Government’s decision follows breakdown of communication and mistrust between the partners that have led to court actions.

Mr Mensah said the Government had tried to mediate between the partners to resolve their differences.

“Due to accusations of fraud and forgery against one of the partners and counter-accusations, there are court cases pending and hence the standstill of the project,” he said.

Mr Mensah said in the wake of such internal wrangling and pending court cases, Government could not allow “a single company which cannot put its acts together to hold the nation to ransom especially as some of their members are indulging in acts that seem to bother on impropriety”.

He said Government was considering all available options to ensure that the interest of the country was not compromised in the STX deal.

He stressed that currently there was no binding contract between Government and the STX partners.

Mr Mensah said Government executed a number of activities to fully discharge its obligations under the contract.

These activities included making available the parcels of land needed for the project take off, technical assistance required including the establishment of implementation structures as well as the sovereign guarantee to support the project’s financing process.

Mr Mensah announced that a Housing Project Management Committee had been set up with the mandate to receive and review all proposals on housing.

He said the Committee had outlined guidelines and criteria for selecting potential investors.

“These criteria include proof of legal existence of investors, company profile, financial capacity, financing terms and technical proposals,” he said.

Mr Mensah said four out of 40 proposals had so far been considered as credible.

The National Housing Project was to address the acute shortage of houses for the Ghana Armed Forces, the Ghana Police Service and allied security services.

It was aimed at reversing the huge national housing deficit.

Source: GNA