Multi-purpose sports court project in Bolgatanga abandoned for 14 years

To bridge the gap between the north and the south in terms of sports infrastructure, a former President of Ghana, John Evans Atta Mills as part of an agenda to promote lesser-known sports in deprived regions of Ghana, allocated an amount of $100,000 in 2011, an equivalent of GHC150,000 at the time.

That amount is currently worth about One million and five Hundred thousand Ghana Cedis (GHC1.5 million) for the construction of a multi-purpose Sports Court which will include volleyball, Hand Ball and Basketball courts in Bolgatanga with other facilities.

Initially, a designated site owned by the National Sports Authority (NSA) closer to the Bolgatanga Hospital roundabout on the Bolgatanga-Navrongo road was earmarked for the project and sod cut by the late former President Atta Mills, but that did not happen due to compensation issues between the original landowners and the NSA.

The Upper East Regional Coordinating Council then wrote a letter to the Ministry of Youth and Sports to propose a portion of the Bolgatanga sports stadium for the project which was granted and construction begun according to the project progress Report from the Ministry of Finance on March 25, 2011 with initial completion date of June 25, 2011.

A gross value of the first certificate of GHC58,934 was raised and GHC53, 040.69 paid to the contractor based in Kaneshie in Accra representing 40% work done on May 31, 2011.

The 40% work was done which amounted to the GHC53,040.69 and paid to the contractor. This comprised the substructure (work up to top of ground floor bed) and one component of the superstructure which is the concrete work (columns, beams, lintels and concrete floor slabs).

The rest of the components of the superstructure contained in the Ministry of Finance’s project progress Report like the Roofing (structural steel or timber roof members and roofing sheets), Block work (external wall and partitions, ground/first floor), joinery/woodwork, plumbing installations, metal work, Electrical installations, finishes, Glazing, painting and others were not completed.

The external works which involve soil drainage, driveways and drain, gravelling and fencing were not also completed in the project progress Report.

Based on the 40% completion of the project, which was paid, there is evidence on site, that suggests there was no additional work done on the other components of the project and weeds, shrubs and grub up roots have taken over the project after fourteen years of half work done.

The project site is located inside the Bolgatanga Sports stadium which has never been used and has also been taken over by young drug addicts as their place of drug activation activities and drug market.

The entire Upper East Region has one public functional volleyball and one Basketball courts each, owned by a private sports association. These sports facilities though not up to international standards, are producing talented volleyball players for the national teams and security services sports departments.

Sports facilities in some fortunate Senior High and Technical schools in the region have also played major roles in sports development in the region, especially during regional and national sports festivals. Even at that, a lot of resources from the schools and Education Service are channeled to upgrade these facilities to make them fit for purpose.

Residents and sports associations in the region, especially the Disability Sports Federation in Upper East Region, have expressed worry over lack of disability friendly sports facilities and lesser-known sports facilities throughout the region.

Residents in the Upper East are demanding the whereabouts of the remaining 60% component of the project which is now worth $60,000 out of the contract sum of $100,000 in 2011.

Mr. Gabriel Agambila Akakiiri, a co-founder of Alagumgube, a development association in Ghana with branches across the world expressed disappointment over why the project was left to deteriorate after so much money has been paid.

“This is what is produced out of the $100,000. Where is the rest of the money? It will take me and you to fish this contractor out. We are not going to sleep, we are going to bring him back to this site and wherever the money is, he has to complete this project,” he stated.

According to him, “we now have a grassroots person as our Regional Minister. He grew up from the grassroots and he’s gotten up there. I’m appealing to my brother and my elder brother that he should open an inquiry into this thing that we are talking about. He needs to open an inquiry into it and demand that the contractor comes back to site and complete the job. If not, we are taking him to task.

The Upper East Regional Director of Sports Authority, Ibrahim Jihad shared to us the challenges in sports infrastructure in the region.

“Actually, sports development in the region, we are doing our best and the various sports associations, they are also on the ground doing their best and we are collaborating and we are working very well. But the main challenge about sports development is about the infrastructure,” he said.

He added that, “when you come to talk about volleyball, we have only one community volleyball court at the Mobile Park, that is the only court we have for community use. And then when you talk about basketball, the social center basketball courts, these days it’s almost going bad, but we are still managing it. And then when you talk about handball and netball, we don’t have those ones at the community levels.”

Mr Jihad explained that “if you come to look at our stadium, we have a basketball court, we have a handball court, which the associations deem it to not be standard because of the size of it and the nature of it. And because of that, they are not using it because it is not of standard. And the nature of it, they said that they can easily get injuries because the size of the court is just the size of the volleyball markings, which is not safe for players”.

“And then our football pitch at the stadium too, it’s not the best because it has been abandoned by the football teams because it is not grass or it is not AstroTurf. And we are all aware of the rule these days, that we should play on the grass or AstroTurf pitch. So, the state of infrastructure and sports infrastructure in the Upper East is not the best,” he added.

The Regional Sports Director has therefore called on government and philanthropists who think they can support in the development of the sporting infrastructure in the Upper East Region to come to their aid by helping them to develop sports in the Upper East Region.

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