It has emerged that the erstwhile John Dramani Mahama administration spent $130 million for the redevelopment of the Tamale International Airport project phase one, which was $30 million more than the $100 million secured and earmarked for the facility.
Surprisingly, the Mahama administration was said not to have completed the whole project even with the inflated amount before it was inaugurated.
A Deputy Director of Communications of the governing New Patriotic Party who doubles as the Director of Youth Employment Agency in northern region, Mr Haruna Mohammed, who made the revelation, has also found out that some of the work under the first phase had not been done before the airport was commissioned by then President Mahama in 2016.
According to him, the rehabilitation of the existing apron, a modified fire service building, a car park and VVIP lounge all were not done in the project specifications.
In addition, the construction of the customs and immigration office was also not done.
The NPP Deputy Communications Director indicated that only the runway expansion from 2,438 to 4,000 metres, the construction of a new apron and taxi link as well as the aeronautic ground lights installed for night operations were done by the previous administration.
Mr Haruna Mohammed wondered why the cost of the project increased from the original amount of $100 million to $130 million even though it was not fully completed.
He has therefore accused the erstwhile Mahama administration of engaging in such financial malfeasance.
Cost of Phase 1
Cabinet on December 10, 2012, and the sixth Parliament of Ghana on December 21 respectively approved a Credit Agreement between the Government of Ghana and Deutsche Bank AG (Brazilian Official Equalization Programme) for an amount of US$100,000,000 for the design and construction of the Tamale International Airport Airfield and Pavement project.
Information sourced from a report of Parliament’s Committee on Roads and Transport on November 14, 2013, the sector Ministry acting through the Ghana Airports Company Limited, indicated it was going to upgrade the Tamale Airport to handle International air operations as an alternative to Kotoko International Airport.
The upgrade of the airport, the report added, would support programmes of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) and consequently serve domestic and Sahelian Regions and other West African regional markets as well as being base for the seasonal Hajj (Pilgrimage) flights to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
The committee report obtained by THE CUSTODIAN further captured the objective of the phase 1 to include the rehabilitation and expansion of the existing runway from 2,438 to 4,000 metres, which comprised a detailed design, extension and strengthening of the existing runway pavement and rehabilitation of the existing taxiway and taxi-links and apron expansion.
The project scope also included the expansion of the existing apron to accommodate 3 wide-bodied medium-size aircrafts, the construction of an inner perimeter fence of height of 2.4metres above existing ground level and construction of access roads on both sides of the inner perimeter.
Phase 2 Contract Agreement
Mr Haruna Mohammed refuted claims that the Mahama NDC government secured funding for the ongoing phase 2 project of the Tamale International Airport and the construction firm (Queiroz Galvao Construction) that worked on the redevelopment of the first phase.
According to him, the Akufo-Addo led NPP government secured the US$70 million from two international agencies – the UK Export Finance and KfW IPEX-Bank of Germany for the construction of a modular Airport Terminal building and other ancillary facilities.
“The phase II project is being funded by two agencies, UK Export Finance and KfW IPEX-Bank of Germany at a total cost of $70 million. The funding for this project started and secured under Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo”, he insisted.
The contractors for the phase II project are Quaternary Geology Map of Illinois (QGMI) – a Brazilian construction firm.
QGMI is a global infrastructure company specialized in developing, financing and implementing urban mobility, water and sewage, energy, industrial building and transport projects with extensive footprint in Latin America and Africa.
Consultants of the phase two project are Ecobuild Consult.
However, Bans Consult was responsible for supervising the design and construction of the runway and apron pavements with ESPCo being responsible for reviewing the design and construction of the upgrade works under the phase one.
