By Assan Bah
The Minister of Transport, Works and Infrastructure has told this medium that not everyone who was affected by the OIC roads project has been compensated.
He said they have been paying victims based on what is allocated to the Ministry.
“Not everyone has been compensated, which I have to admit. The truth of the matter is that we, as a ministry, also depend on budget allocations to pay for these compensation packages,” he confirmed.
He, however, said that they had already done the mapping of all the properties where the demolition took place, adding that all the bank details of the affected persons had been taken.
“We have been paying based on what has been allocated to us, as a ministry. I know that in certain areas of Tallinding, Jeshwang, Bijilo, Burfut Heights, and the Bertil Harding Highway, we still owe some property owners, especially with Phase Two of the project. But government through the ministry of finance is working very hard to get these funds allocated to the Ministry of Transport, Works and Infrastructure, to continue the payment of compensations to those whose properties were affected,’’ he said.
He noted that it is because it involves a huge chunk of money and everything cannot be identified in one go.
“We have paid quite a number of claimants. We are still waiting for additional funds from the Ministry of Finance to be able to pay the rest. We live in a resource-constrained country, and we have been going through the process on a sectional basis, based on first come first serve,’’ the Minister said.
However, Sillah said that they are somewhat challenged in identifying who should receive compensation.
“Some of these compounds are family compounds, and we can only pay to the one in whose name is the title deed of the compound through a bank account. If the title deed is not in the claimant’s name, they must give an attorney’s power. Disputes regarding payment claims are referred to the curator’s office at the Ministry of Justice,’’ he said.
According to him, they only process the paper but the payment is done by the accountant general through the Central Bank, who he said, pays the money directly into the respective accounts. He said there is nothing like a direct human interface with the funds.
Some of the compound owners, however, are not satisfied with the amount they were given as compensation, and the Minister said he is aware of this. He said the valuation reports were prepared by the Ministry of Local Government and Lands which they acted on.
“The way the compensation is done is that compound owners are engaged in the first place, and based on the surveys that we made, it will determine how many meters have been taken. Some compounds had already developed properties in some of these areas and they might be compensated more than those who only have a fence in these land areas. The compensation considers different things: the size of the area removed from a compound and developed structures that have been demolished. All these are valued, but some of them however, do not agree with the valuation and they can invoke their right to seek legal redress which also contributes to delay in the process,” he explained.
He further said that when compound owners have queries on the amount they are given as compensation, they normally ask the evaluator to re-evaluate in cases where they [compound owners] disagree with the valuation exercise by hiring independent evaluators to value the properties. But in most cases, he said these differences are very minimal. He said no property owner is forced to agree with the government’s valuation reports.
“Property owners have the right to independently assess government valuation reports and pay an evaluator. This is a democracy and we encourage dialogue with property owners. People should understand that we are bringing new infrastructure such as water pipes and electricity cables on both sides of the roads and fiber infrastructure to these areas. It is like we are completely re-configuring the infrastructure,” Mr. Sillah said.
