The Assemblyman for Ankaase West electoral area, Mr Emmanuel Kwame Boamah, has exposed the impropriety of an agreement between the West Coast Construction Company Limited, a quarry firm and the Ankaase stool on behalf of the community.
The purported agreement was signed between the company, per its Managing Director, David Opoku and four sub-chiefs namely; Nana Amankwaah-Pam (Krontihene), Nana Kwabena Yamoa, (Akwamuhene), Nana Kofi Asabere (Gyasehene) and Nana Kwame Yamoah (Akyeamehene) all of Ankaase in the Afigya Kwabre South district of Ashanti on November 10, 2008.
Daniel York and Samuel Darko, Assemblyman and Unit Committee Secretary then witnessed the signing of the agreement on behalf of the Ankaase community.
Under the agreement, the lessee company was granted leasehold of Stone Concession and land measuring 44.66 acres for drilling and excavating rocks, blast and crush stones for 50 years upon the payment of GHc4,000.00
The Lessee company was to pay necessary royalties and rent every year to the Ankaase Stool through the Administrator of stool Lands as stipulated by the Minerals Commission as required by law.
The company was also to provide all the necessary items to the lessor to perform the necessary customary rites and to undertake one social development project for the people of Ankaase in the coming into force of the agreement and assist the community with other development projects.
Thirteen (13) years on, a toilet facility, the only project the company agreed to undertake is yet to be completed.
But the Assemblyman has described the agreement as exploitative, in as far as the community has not benefited from the deal.
He said the payment of GHc4,000.00 by the company only benefited the chiefs at the expense of the community and declared the said agreement null and void until it is revised.
He wondered why the company could exploit the community by paying GHc4,000.00 to the sub- chiefs for a concession for 50 years without any benefit to the community as a whole.
Nana Kwadwo Akwaboah I, Odikro (Caretaker chief) of Ankaase, told The Chronicle that efforts in an attempt to meet the construction firm to right the deficiency in the agreement and thus meet the developmental needs of the community have proved futile over the years.
The West Coast Construction MD has declined to speak to the issues raised, only to direct the paper to the Northern Sector Association of Quarry industries, of which the company is a member.
Mr. Adu Tutu, Chairman of the Quarry Association, reacting to the alleged default of corporate social responsibilities by West Coast Construction Company limited at Ankaase explained that they are no longer performing their corporate social responsibilities as individual companies.
According to him, member companies under one umbrella of the Association in the Afigya Kwabre South district have, through the District Assembly, established a quarry fund from which projects in various communities in the district are funded.
He further explained that by the arrangement individual companies cannot determine how the fund is appropriated since the distribution of funds is the responsibility of the managers of the fund, in collaboration with the Assembly responsible to determine where the fund should be channelled in addressing the challenges of the communities as corporate social responsibilities.
Chairman Adu Tutu emphasised that no individual community has the right to demand for corporate social responsibility from an individual company, since all the companies as an Association under the Assembly is contributing towards projects in their catchment areas.
He pointed to the construction of a toilet facility at Ankaase community under the plan of the association, which project has been under construction for the past 13 years in disregard to the agreement between the company and the community.
He said the Chiefs of Mami and Ankaase had requested for Iron gates and stones for their palaces and that their request would be granted in due course.
The post Assemblyman challenges agreement between quarry coy and Nananom at Ankaase-Ashanti appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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