Alfred Vanderpuije, the Mayor of Accra and Chief of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), has acknowledged that the AMA should have taken preventative action in the case of the recently collapsed Melcom building because it had been built without a permit.He pledged find out how the building managed to go up when no permit had been issued for its construction.Calling in to Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, he defended the AMA’s procedures for permit issuance, saying that three years ago, the AMA ordered all property owners lacking permits to come apply for them.The AMA accounts for cases in which property owners fail to self-report, he explained, by sending out representatives who demand permits from those constructing buildings and go door to door asking home owners to produce their permits.Vanderpuije reported that the AMA has been prosecuting permit violators for the last two years but that these court cases have not been widely publicized.Responding to the suggestion that some people build without permits because the permit process is unreasonably long and arduous, he insisted that for the last three years, all permit applications have been approved or rejected within 90 days of submission.He also admitted that the AMA has been unable to locate the building’s owner but announced that they are anxious to do so because he owns another structure that also lacks a permit, another apparent oversight on the AMA’s part.