Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah has stated that government has commenced a thorough review and audit of all public lands sold in recent years in order to make sure that due process was followed.
During a visit by the Vice President Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang to the Ministry on Tuesday, January 27, the Minister stated that the objective of the action is to safeguard public property and guarantee the state gets value for its money.
He stressed that any transaction that is discovered to have violated established protocols or left necessary procedures unfinished will be void.
He explained that the review was prompted by mounting worries that certain public lands that the state had initially purchased for particular uses, like construction and agriculture, had been illegally sold or mismanaged by officials entrusted with their protection.
He warned that officials found culpable would have their names published in nationals newspapers and sanctioned to serve as a deterrent.
“We began the processes of reviewing. One of the things that we all heard is that public lands that the government had taken for specific purposes, some for agriculture, somehow, the people who had been given the charge to protect these lands were abusing them.
“We constituted a team led by my able Deputy, and we got cabinet approval to address that. By the time we finish, it will not cross the mind of any government official to take public lands because we will publish your name in every newspaper.
“All public lands that had been sold are going under review to make sure there is value for money, and a process audit was done. Those that didn’t finish the processes are automatically canceled. We are going on to ensure we implement it to the latter to give confidence to the people of Ghana that we are going to protect public lands,” he said.
