A 10-member Advisory Board and two other committees to guide the administration of the Ministry of Works and Housing (MWH) to deliver on its mandate, were inaugurated in Accra yesterday.
While the advisory board is responsible for providing direction in the planning, policy and operational strategies of the ministry, the Audit and Entity Tender Committees respectively, would ensure the ministry implements recommendations contained in the internal audit reports and other financial reports as well as make right procurement decisions.
The Sector Minister, Francis Asenso-Boakye chairs the Advisory Board with other members including the Minister of State for MWH, Freda Prempeh, Chief Director of the Ministry, Solomon Asoalla, Acting Deputy Executive, Operations, of the Lands Commission, Benjamin Arthur and Managing Director of the Republic Bank, Mr Farid Antar.
The rest are the Deputy Director-General, Investment and Operations of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Kofi Osafo-Maafo, Director-General of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Eric Nana Agyemang-Prempeh, President of Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA), Patrick Ebo Bonful and the Director-General, Administration at the MWH, Alberta Kwarko.
In an address, the minister, Mr Asenso-Boakye who outlined the focus of the ministry to mainly improve the works and housing sector of the country, expressed hope that the re-constitution of the board and Committees would advance progress in that direction.
He explained the ministry was responsible to among others provide flood control and coastal protection policies in order to manage recurring disasters in the country while ensuring decent, quality and affordable housing for low-to-middle income earners in the short, medium and long term.
“Over the years, we have been experiencing increasing limitations in our capacity to produce housing for low-to-middle income households and as a result, the country is now facing a housing deficit of two million units and we must develop more pragmatic measures to tackle this deficit,” he said.
The ,inister charged members of the Advisory Board to leverage on strong partnership with other agencies and businesses to “creatively” respond to the needs of the citizenry.
To the eight-member Entity Tender Committee, responsible for decisions in the area of procurement, Mr Asenso-Boakye implored them to exercise sound judgement in drawing conclusions on any matter in line with the Public Procurement Amendment Act, 2016 (Act 914).
He encouraged all members serving in respective teams to bring their expertise to bear and work diligently towards attaining their tasks and the overall good of the ministry.
On behalf of members, Mr Farid Antar, Managing Director of the Republic Bank, thanked the minister for reposing confidence in them and promised to give off their best to help the ministry achieve its mandate.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH
