The Committee tasked by the Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Francis Asenso-Boakye, with the responsibility of undertaking a comprehensive audit of all government landed property in the form of offices and residential accommodation across the country has presented its inception report – with a recommendation to set up what will be known as the Government Property Database.
According to Chairman of the Committee and Member of Parliament (MP) for Abetifi, Bryan Acheampong, the Government Property Database when fully operational will have useful features such as the type of property, the condition, the estimated value as well the GPS coordinates of all public offices and residential properties.
Presenting the report, Mr. Acheampong revealed that an estimated 25,000 government landed properties across the country will be captured on the system – enabling the host Ministry (Ministry of Works and Housing) to plan and manage the landed assets efficiently.
Having so far audited and captured about 1,380 landed properties of Ministries, Departments, Metropolitan and District Assemblies (MMDAs) onto the database, the Chairman indicated that the Committee needs an additional six months to fully capture the remaining estimated 25,000 government properties across the country onto the system.
Receiving the report, Mr. Asenso-Boakye expressed his gratitude to the Committee for the extensive work undertaken since their inauguration late last year. The minister said he is particularly impressed with the sense of patriotism exhibited by the Committee in executing their mandate; noting that the Committee undertook the assignment without demanding any financial or logistical support from the ministry.
The Database, Mr. Asenso-Boakye noted, will eventually be a useful source of information to the Public Works Department (PWD) – an agency of the ministry whose operations will soon be diversified to enable it effectively manage and maintain all public landed properties in the country.
The Minister for Works and Housing therefore gave assurance that the Report will be studied to consider the recommendations and way forward in ensuring that the project is completed.
It will be recalled that the minister announced government’s plans to undertake an audit of all its landed assets across the country with the inauguration of an 8-member committee. This, according to the minister, was necessitated by the ministry’s responsibility to keep track of all government buildings, offices and residential accommodation across the country, validate locations, capture current state, check integrity – and where necessary, recover government landed assets.
