A statement from the Secretary to the Parliamentary Service Board (PSB), Mr Mathew Abrefa Tawiah, stated that the current Speaker and PSBs were only continuing a process that previous speakers and PSBs found necessary to pursue.

“Experts were consulted; serious studies were made. Three architectural firms submitted proposals: Two Ghanaian and one Chinese.

The Architects Registration Council (ARC) of Ghana was mandated to independently make an assessment of the anonymous proposals and Sir David Adjaye and Associates were qualified after their assessment,” it states.

According to the statement, the ARC’s final result was what, for purposes of transparency and accountability, was unveiled to Ghanaians.

Every President of the 4th Republic, the statement indicated, had been approached by the Parliamentary Service Board (PSB) on the need for a decent Parliamentary Chamber Complex and promised to facilitate its construction. Hence, this is not some novel business being invoked out of the blue,” the statement added.

Accountability

Going into the details of the procurement process, the statement explained that PSB sometime in October, 2018 took a decision to procure Architectural Design Services towards the proposed construction of a Parliamentary Chamber Complex.

Thereafter, Parliament wrote to the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) on December 3, 2018, for approval to undertake a restricted tendering of three firms -- Design Associates & Development Consortium, China Great Wall Industry Corporation and Sir David Adjaye & Associates. 

It said the PPA subsequently granted approval on December 17, 2018. 

The statement said Parliament’s Entity Tender Committee (ETC), which had deliberated on the project then, had a membership of five persons: the Chairman and four other members.

“The Entity Tender Committee wrote to the Majority and Minority Caucuses to submit their nominees. Upon repeated written request on the matter, four representatives to the ETC were eventually nominated by the Caucuses in February, 2019,” it said.

Three firms

From there, Parliament requested the three firms to submit their designs for the Parliamentary Chamber Complex project.

Designs and technical information were submitted by the firms to Parliament. As a sequel to the submitted designs, Request For Proposal (RFP) documents were issued to the three firms.

“After submission of the RFP documents, Parliament wrote to invite representatives of the Ghana Institute of Engineers, Ghana Institution of Surveyors, Ghana Institute of Architects, Architects Registration Council and our in-house Consultants to meet to review the submissions.

“At a meeting of representatives from the above-mentioned institutions and Parliament, the ARC explained that for an architectural design competition, the ARC is the body mandated to receive and evaluate the architectural designs, in accordance with provisions of the Architects Act 1969, NLCD 357. Parliament was duly notified of this,” it said.

Technical assistance

Consequently, Parliament wrote to the ARC on December 18, 2018, requesting technical assistance in reviewing the submitted designs, in accordance with Sections 20A (2) and 20E of the Public Procurement (Amendment) Act of 2016 (Act 914).

Following that the ARC took its decision, including the disqualification of China Great Wall Industry Corporation, since they did not have a licence to practise Architecture in Ghana.

It also demanded detailed designs and spelt out the evaluation criteria to the remaining two, set January 17, 2019 as the submission date.