The Ministry of Works and Housing will begin work to digitally register existing Government buildings and landed properties.

With funding support from Japan and Ghana governments, digital technology will be used to develop a database with digital images of such properties and assets using Geographic Information System (GIS).

“This exercise is very important as registers of existing Government buildings and landed properties maintained by various public sector institutions are either incomplete, unreliable or non-existent,” the Ministry said in a statement.

Below is the statement

DEVELOPMENT OF GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS) FOR MANAGING GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS(PROPERTIES), BONDED LAND BANKS AND OTHER STATE PROPERTIES

 

The Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing (MWRWH) in fulfilling its mandate of compiling, maintaining and managing an Inventory of the State’s Building and bonded land assets has secured funding from the Japanese Government’s Counter-Value Fund with counterpart funding from the Government of Ghana to undertake the task of creating a Database with digital images of the assets using Geographic Information System (GIS).

This exercise is very important as registers of existing Government buildings and landed properties maintained by various public sector institutions are either incomplete, unreliable or non-existent. Additionally, the assets registers maintained by the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing (MWRWH) and the Public Works Department (PWD) are not up to date. As a result, it has been difficult to obtain comprehensive information that will enable the Government determine a register of all State-Owned buildings and land banks that is reliable.

In this regard, the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing inaugurated a Committee on April 16, 2012 to undertake a comprehensive compilation of register of all state buildings and bonded land banks maintained by Public Sector Institutions delineating office accommodation, residential accommodation and other uses.

The work of the Committee involves the following tasks:

1. Develop a central register/database for existing state buildings and land banks,
2. Capture these assets digitally using Geographic Information System (GIS),
3. Document their current state and uses,
4. Develop a framework for capturing all new buildings financed from the State coffers,
5. Make recommendations for improving the management of State buildings and land banks.

Since its inauguration, the Committee has completed the feasibility phase which involved the collection of occupancy information on Government Bungalows in some parts of Accra. The exercise is now entering the pilot phase which would involve the collection of information on all State building and bonded land assets in the Greater Accra Region, as well as updating occupancy information collected during the feasibility phase. In this respect, there will be repeated visits of properties by our data collection team during the feasibility phase.

THE MINISTRY OF WATER RESOURCES, WORKS AND HOUSING WISHES TO APPEAL TO ALL OCCUPANTS OF STATE BUILDINGS AND PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS IN POSSESSION OF STATE BUILDINGS AND LAND BANKS TO ASSIST THE COMMITTEE UNDERTAKE THIS ALL IMPORTANT NATIONAL ASSIGNMENT.

SIGNED

HON. ALHAJI COLLINS DAUDA, MP

MINISTER