Gov’t To Demolish MOFA Tower

Vice-President John Dramani Mahama has accepted recommendations presented to him by the Committee that was constituted to investigate the fire outbreak at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the burnt office tower should be demolished.

The demolishing of the MOFA tower was part of the many recommendations presented by the committee set up by the government in November to, among other things, to enquire into the cause of the fire outbreak that generated a lot of controversies considering its strategic government property.

According to Committee, even though the committee endorsed the technical assessment of the Architectural and Engineering Services Limited (AESL) that the building has lost a “considerable amount of strength” and that the building be restored, the cost of restoration would not make it worthwhile and therefore recommended it for demolishing.

Presenting the report to the Vice-President in a short ceremony at the Castle-Osu in Accra by Chairman of the Committee Kweku Twum Boafo of the Twum Boafo and Associates, it was established that the fire was “caused by an electrical fault.”

“It was also established that the Ministry did not have a good maintenance culture which could possibly have prevented such a fire from occurring,” it stated.

According to the Chairman, the Committee further found that even though the Ghana National Fire Service responded to the fire outbreak on time, the severe logistical limitations confronting the Service made it impossible for it to fight and control the fire effectively.

“The Committee, after assessing the firefighting equipment holding of the Ministry and the relevant fire protection installation, has concluded that the fire defense and suppression system of the Ministry was poor,” Mr. Twum Boafo lamented.

The report mentioned large volumes of valuable documents, including diplomatic demarches, furniture, fixtures, electrical as well as information technology equipment, were lost to the fire.

“Also, the backup system for the storage of importation documents, which had been installed but not made fully operational, was destroyed by the fire,” it noted.

Mr. Twum Boafo called on government to consider the fire incident and others as lessons which should spur the government on to taking proactive measures to give priority to fire safety and security matters.

Receiving the reports, Vice-President Mahama commended the members of the Committee for their diligence and tenacity to duty.

He said the establishment of facts that the fire was caused by an electrical fault had confirmed the fear of government.

Mr. Mahama said most of the structures being used by government were built in the 1960s and had not received any infrastructural improvement, especially in the use of modern gadgets like air conditioners, television sets and other electrical appliances and therefore had put a lot of pressure on power consumption at the Ministries, departments and agencies.

He was worried over the lack of facilities for the GNFS to able to fight fire from high structures and indicated that the time had come for a change.

This, Mr. Mahama disclosed that the government had already taken steps to resource the GNFS to be battle ready.

He promised to hand over the report to His Excellency the President Prof. John Evans Atta Mills for study and the appropriate measures to be taken in consonance with the recommendations in the report.

He disclosed that the Chinese government had accepted to assist the government of Ghana to put a new edifice to house the ministry.

The Committee, which was set up in October this year, was to, among other things, to assess the responsiveness of the Ghana National Fire Service to the disaster; to assess the firefighting equipment at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration and to enquire into the extent of damage caused by the fire.

It was also tasked to assess the loss of valuable documents and equipment; to enquire into whether there are adequate backup systems for the storage of important documents and to look into any other matter incidental to or connect with the disaster.

Other members of the Committee include Ken Dzirassah, former Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Dr. Don Arthur-office of the President, Assistant Commissioner of Police Robert Ayalingo, Klu Agyarko Attobra-Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Alhaji Ziblim Yakubu-Acting Chief Director, Ministry of Works and Housing and Morgan Brown-Director of Administration, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Secretary to the Committee was G.E Ofori, Principal State Attorney of the Ministry of Justice.

Present at the ceremony were Hon. Cletus Avoka, Minister of the Interior, Mrs. Betty Mould-Iddrissu, Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Mrs. Zita Okaikwei, Minister of Information and her two deputies, Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa and James Agyenim Boateng and Dr. Valerie Sackey, Deputy Chief of Staff


Story by: Wisdom Peter Awuku (Office Of The Vice President)