Jubilee House: Clearing Of "Forest" & Upgrading To Cost US$50 million

A preliminary report from the technical team working at the Jubilee House has indicated that US$82 million has so far been spent on the facility as against the US$30 million said to be the cost initially. A Deputy Minister of Information, Mr. James Agyenim Boateng, disclosed this in an interview with PEACE FM after a tour of the Jubilee House. Mr. Agyenim Boateng further revealed that, in addition to the money spent, "an additional US$50 million would be needed to complete the project" involving landscaping, residency for security personnel, clinic, post office and clearing of the "forest" behind the House, which poses a security threat. "There's the general services building...there's a lot of work to be done on that one...One thing we noticed which we find intriguing was that, normally, the residence of the president, where he lives or stays, is a security zone...in that sense they should be provided with a place to lay their head, but there's no such thing, that means where the President is staying, he will be the only one in the place, there's no accommodation for security personnel at the Jubilee House, and that beats our imagination," he added. The edifice built by the Former President John Agyekum Kufuor was to “create a credible spiritual and psychological centre to inspire the self-confidence and the clear identity of the national persona.” From the initial estimation of the project, the Indian Government made available $30 million as grant, while the Government of Ghana was to provide a counterpart funding of $6.9 million. According to Mr. Agyenim Boateng, the contractor has promised to complete the project within two months if the required financial resources are readily made available. "...The engineers have made it clear that if given the resources needed within forty to fifty days, they will wash their hands off it Meanwhile, it is believed that another 6.5 million dollars would have to be paid to the contractors working on the building in addition to the consultancy fee of about 10 per cent. Source: Kwadwo Asante/peacefmonline