Purchase of new Ghana Oslo mission put on hold

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Shirley Ayorkor Botchway has suspended the planned purchase of a property in Oslo, Norway for the purposes of establishing a mission there.

It follows claims that the price of the 100-year-old property had been inflated.

The Minority in Parliament on Monday accused Mrs Ayorkor Botchway of supervising over a grand scheme to loot the country’s meager resources in the pricing of the property.

The property, according to the Minority Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa is “outrageously” priced at $12.1 million instead of $3.5million.

He said their investigation uncovered that $16.5million presented to the foreign affairs committee of parliament as the budget for the new mission in Oslo, the Chancery and the Ambassador’s residence is “outrageously high.”

“It is outlandishly inflated,” he said during approval of budget estimate for the ministry, noting that the property in 2014 was bought $2.9million and resold at $3.5million.

In her response however, after a heated verbal melee with the Minority Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs Mrs Botchway divulged that the purchase of the property had been halted.

She said she halted the purchase of the property last week Wednesday when news of the property price being inflated hit the Norwegian Newsstands. “No money has exchanged hands. We don’t have a contract that will bind us to the purchase of that property and it is on hold and I have instructed and directed that we look for other properties.”

Taking note of the issues raised by the Minority, She said she took responsibility for everything that’s done in the Ministry under her watch, assuring: “I’ll not superintend over any act of corruption or wrong doing or outrageous inflation of figures or fraudulent activities that would end in the loss of funds to the Ministry and by extension to the state.

“Mr speaker let me say that concerning the Oslo property as per the normal practice at the Ministry, when a new mission is  to be opened the first thing which is done is to send officers to that country.”

Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM

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