Government funding construction of National Cathedral
David Adjaye receives contract to design National Cathedral
Bright Simons laments prevalence of sole sourcing contracts to David Adjaye
Member of Parliament for Builsa South, Clement Apaak, has reacted to comments by a leading member of the New Patriotic Party, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, in which the latter laments criticism by some ‘celebrated intellectuals’ directed at the architect of the National Cathedral project, Sir David Adjaye.
In a post on his social media page, the MP said the ‘celebrated intellectuals’ Gabby referred to have the mandate to continuously defend what they believe is good for the country.
He questioned why Sir David Adjaye will be awarded single-sourced contracts amounting to $300 million. He wondered if Sir David Adjaye was the only architect in the world or the only architect with Ghanaian descent.
“Celebrated intellectuals are obligated to defend the public interest. Adjaye has been given sole-sourced contracts, is he the only architect in the world or of Ghanaian descent, why must he walk away with usd 300M under circumstances that are questionable,” Dr. Apaak tweeted.
Gabby Otchere-Darko had earlier registered his concerns over attacks on Sir David Adjaye, which attacks he said were spearheaded by celebrated intellectuals.
In a Facebook post with the harshtag #HateNotSuccess, Gabby indicated that he was saddened the development.
“I find it sad to see men we celebrate for their intellectual artistry being the lead campaigners against a globally successful Ghanaian such as David Adjaye who chose to relocate his global business in Ghana. #HateNotSuccess,” he wrote on his Facebook wall.
Sir David Adjaye has been receiving criticisms after his company Adjaye and Associates was awarded several government contracts worth millions of dollars through sole sourcing.
The concerns have largely been about the lack of competitive bidding in the award of the contract even though the project was not an emergency.
Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons while speaking on Joynews recently disclosed that the architect has been ordered five contracts through sole sourcing.
According to him, the government has so far sole-sourced five major projects to Sir David Adjaye’s company which will eventually earn him more than $300 million, given the current rate he is currently charging.
“(There is) this new pattern whereby the government is consistently single-sourcing large projects to a single architect (Sir David Adjaye), it is unusual. We have never seen these in this country… what has all of a sudden changed? We appreciate the fact that Sir David Adjaye is a global architect and internationally renowned, but he has been practising for years since 2000. He has been famous around the world. Why is it that from 2018 onwards, we are seeing massive projects being awarded to him without design competition?,” he quizzed.
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