A group has petitioned the Agogo Traditional Council over attempts by the Asante Akyem North DCE to block contracts to commence two school projects.

The DCE Francis Oti Boateng is being accused of allegedly delaying the signing of a contract which has already been awarded by the Entity Tender Committee of the Asante Akyem North District Assembly.

“We are very concerned over this delay because of the nature of the building of St. Augustine School and the shortage of classrooms for APCE Demonstration School,” the group said in the petition.

Below is the full petition

Petition against the DCE for the delay in signing the Award of contract to commence two school projects in Agogo

We, as the Members of Agogo Youth Association wish to petition the Agogo Traditional Council over the delay in the signing of a contract which has already been awarded by the Entity Tender Committee of the Asante Akyem North District Assembly.

Our checks have it that, the current District Chief Executive, Hon. Francis Oti Boateng is deliberately delaying the signing of the award letter for his political expediency. We are in the known that sometime in 2016, the Entity Tender Committee of the District Assembly awarded to 2KB Company Limited for work to begin the construction of Six Unit Classroom Block for the APCE Demonstration School and Three Unit Classroom Block for the St. Augustine School.

Our checks at the Assembly further revealed the said contract was initiated and lobbied for by the immediate past Member of Parliament for Asante Akyem North, Hon. Kwadwo Baah Agyemang when he was the sitting member of Parliament. The award processes went through all the tender process and the projects were legally awarded to 2KB Company Ltd.

The award letter was however not signed by the then District Chief Executive until the previous government exited. This again transcended into the reign of the NPP administration. The said company waited for the award letter to commence the project but the current DCE has refused to sign citing conflict of interest on the part of the former MP as having a link to the said company. We believe there is a calculated attempt by the DCE and his cohorts to frustrate the entire project by unnecessarily attacking it’s award.

We are very concerned over this delay because of the nature of the building of St. Augustine School and the shortage of classrooms for APCE Demonstration School.

The St. Augustine School buildings were constructed in 1938 and in 1993, one of the classroom blocks collapsed killing a young girl named Benedicta Obeng. The school is in dire need of new buildings to avoid further catastrophe.

The APCE Demonstration School is over populated and therefore the Six Unit Classroom Block will be a relief for the school.

It is of the aforesaid reasons that we wish to petition the Agogo Traditional Council to call Hon. Francis Oti Boateng to order to sign these contracts for the commencement of the said projects because as indigene of Agogo, we expect him to seek for developments for the Agogo Community. We are however reliably informed that, the District Chief Executive is playing politics with this project and want to give it to a different contractor because of his parochial interest.

As an Association which seeks for the well being and welfare of Agogo Community, we cannot sit unconcerned for a developmental project which has been given to Agogo to be taken away from us, further information has it that the education Minister has warned that if the selected contractor by the tender committee of the assembly is not given the contract, the project would be taken from Agogo.

We wish to state that, the development of Agogo should be paramount to all irrespective of our political affiliations.

We are therefore appealing to Agogo Traditional Council that as a matter of urgency, you step in to call Hon. Oti Boateng to order to sign for these projects to commence with immediate effect.

We hope this petition will be treated with needed attention. Thank you in advance.

Yours faithfully

Alfred Gyimah
(Secretary)

Gilbert Adusi Opoku
(Member)

Amoah Richard
(Member)

Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM