J.J.MOVES TO AUSTRALIA HOUSE

Former President J.J. Rawlings is to be relocated temporarily at the Australia House, a state facility officially known as the Executive State Lodge, weeks of Today’s hounding have established. The facility is thus undergoing serious renovations to befit the status of the former first family.

The former first family, the paper discovered, would be expected to move into the house within the next few weeks, Today have it authority.

After fire destroyed their official residence at Ridge in Accra, government initially decided to house the Rawlingses in one of the flats at the Jubilee Village but shelved the idea and instead chose the Australia House, which according to information gleaned at the presidency, is being preferred by the former first family.

The Jubilee Village was built by the Kufuor administration to host presidents and government delegation that attended Ghana’s 50th independence anniversary in 2007.

But the Special aide to the former President, Kofi Adams, told Today in a telephone interview that as at yesterday when he spoke to us, former President Rawlings had not been offered any state facility since fire gutted his official residence some weeks ago.

According to Kofi Adams, the last time he checked with the Chief of Staff, he was informed that the government was still looking for a decent state facility for the former President, adding that “the Chief of Staff told me that the available facilities are either in state of ruins or have been sold.”

He nonetheless said the Chief of Staff assured him that government would do everything possible to get a decent state facility for former President Rawlings.

Investigations by Today suggest that the Rawlingses were not in favour of being put up at the Jubilee Village because of the controversy surrounding the Ghana @50 Secretariat that put up the Jubilee Village.

A commission of enquiry set up by government has indicted the former CEO of the secretariat, Dr Charles Yves Wereko-Brobby and Mr Kwadwo Mpiani, the Minister with oversight responsibilities over the secretariat.

The Rawlingses, Today gathered, could also not stand the sorry spectacle of seeing the ruins of their burnt down house almost every day, if they had accepted government proposal to house them at one of the Jubilee Village houses.
For the records, the Jubilee Village is located within the same Ridge vicinity as the burnt house of the Rawlingses.

Today’s scouts discovered that since the government decision, the Australia House has been under 24-hour security guard, whilst renovation works are also in full effect.

The paper found out that the repair works are being carried out at the air conditioning systems, plumbing and water supply, flooring, external horticulture works and electrical and lighting system. Other areas that are being considered, Today discovered, are pop ceiling, polished wooden floor, marble tiles and other furnishing items.

Interestingly, these were the same areas that former Chief of Staff, Kwadwo Mpiani, gave out to one Sheila Sackey, then Comptroller of Household, Office of the Presidency, to undertake during the administration of John Agyekum Kufuor.
Today’s findings revealed that Miss Sackey could not do the job as required because she unilaterally sourced the contract of the renovation to an electro-mechanical company instead of employing the services of an expert civil works contractor or engineers.

It was after Sheila had realized the magnitude of damage caused to the building while attempting to fix the air conditioners that she ran to Architectural Engineering Services Limited, (AESL), a reputable civil engineering company, to cover up, as if the proper thing was done in respect of the award of contract to a competent company.

But that move could not help immediately fix the many problems on the building because the original sourced company had then messed up the situation.

And so, as opposed to what Sheila stated in her report that she had finished with the repair works on the Australia House, the Don-Arthur-led transitional team, which inspected the facility during the transitional period noted that “The Australia House which was an enviable piece of real estate and served as a national security safe house and executive guest lodge is now a pale shadow of its former stately condition.”

According to the Don-Arthur report “What is shocking is the fact that the over seventy billion old Ghana cedis contract was neither put on tender, as required by the procurement law, nor was it covered with a written contract, even though, Super Care Group Limited, acting through a sub-contractor, Prime Construction Limited, busily started with work on the project.”

The committee discovered more shockingly that there was a dispute over which person (s) from the presidency awarded the over 70 billion old Ghana Cedis project to Super Care Group.