Mr Speaker, this is a Commercial Agreement, so I would restrict myself to that. I believe this project, when done, would go a long way to improve the quality of lives at our military installations, and also give the needed respect to our men and women in uniforms.
Mr Speaker, if we look at your Committee's Report, two things are missing; perhaps, they provided that information but the Report did not capture.
Mr Speaker, this House always takes note of the fact that when we do projects that are suppliers credit contract, indeed, it basically means that the developer does not need to have all the details of the project; final design and everything. So we always ensure that there is a clause in the Agreement that talks of value for money. Whenever we have suppliers credit contract, value for money must be condition precedent as part of the the Government's Agreement.
Mr Speaker, I have not seen it in any part of the Report, that as a condition precedent, the developer or the Government is required to carry out value-for-money audit to authenticate the rates in this document. I find this to be an anomaly and a serious omission. If the Hon Chairman could tell us whether there is a clause in the Agreement like that, it would suffice; but if it is not, I think this House must take note and ensure that it is part of it.
Mr Speaker, you would notice that not too long ago, an Agreement was brought to this House, which was the Sinohydro Agreement. Your Committee on Roads and Transport pointed out that for the first time when we would spend over US$500,-000,000.00, value for money was not part of that Agreement. Today, we are aware thjat the Sinohydro project is about to take off; yet, we are not aware whether value-for-money audit has been carried out. I do not think this House ever approves an Agreement on condition that the developer could go and do whatever he or she likes.
I think the first way to ensure value money for this country is to ensure it is written into law, so we could use it as a quality control measure to determine that it is done. I make that as a significant point for the Ministry to take note if they want to—
Mr Speaker, if we read your Committee's Report on another matter, I did not see anything in the Report that talks about the legal opinion of the Hon Attorney-General and Minister for Justice about this contract. The same way, the US$500,000,000.00 Sinohydro Agreement came to this House and we queried the fact that there was no legal opinion of the Hon Attorney- General. We were told it would be brought to this House.
As we speak, we are being told that tomorrow, there would be a sod- cutting ceremony for the Sinohydro Project. The legal opinion is not here; the value-for-money audit is not here.
Mr Speaker, this House cannot be seen to approve Agreements without these critical ingredients when it comes to procurement contracts.
Mr Speaker, column 7.9 -- Antici- pated variation. I would draw the attention of the Hon Chairman that when we talk about variation in contracts, significantly, it is not about a path foundation changed into street foundation. Variations that are significant would have a bearing on the cost of the project.
This project is a fixed sum contract so if we write anything here that suggests that we agree on variation, that would be an anomaly. Fixed sum contracts are fixed sum contracts; one is not allowed to increase the cost of the project. The cost at the end of the project could reduce but not to increase. So we do not expect US$1.00 extra to be spent on this project; for that matter, we must re- consider the “Anticipated Variations”.
When we say variation, we are only talking about what happens on site, which is not significant enough to come under discussion at the Committee level.
Mr Speaker, the last point I would like to make here is about an item; “Source of the project fund”. We are told in paragraph 7.5 that Govern- ment is providing absolutely no money for this project.
Mr Speaker, I also would like us to consider this. Whenever Govern- ment provides land, in fact, in Accra, perhaps, a third of the value of a house or a property in Accra could be the cost of the land. So when we are engage in procurement of landed property and we say the Government is not providing anything, are we really being truthful? If the land belongs to the Government and somebody brings US$100,000,000.00 by the end of the project, the buildings are not US$100,000,000.00 any longer; they are US$100,000,000.00 plus the land and other things that the Government provides.
We think that should be captured appropriately so that it does not appear as if Government's hands are tied at the back. Indeed, the lands on which the projects would be built are Government properties, so that is the Government's contribution to this project.
Mr Speaker, with these few words, I believe this is a very worthy project. I would like to see more of these done for the Ghana Armed Forces so that when we sleep, we know that those men and women who keep wake to make sure we are safe do not feel bad.
Mr Speaker, as a national service person after sixth form, I served at the Ho Barracks. Where the men and women stay is not the best.
I actually attributed that to the non- performance of some of the children I taught at the primary school. The fact
