Lands Commission to roll out $85m project

Beginning in 2019, the Lands Commission will collaborate with a commercial enterprise to launch a $85 million project that will revolutionize the nation’s land administration.

The five-year project will be funded by the local investor PBD Ltd., which will also contribute technological know-how.

The investor will support the initiative by contributing to the creation of digital maps of the nation, strengthening the Lands Commission’s human resource capability through training and retraining, equipping the commission with new technology, and coordinating the digitization of land records.

Benjamin Arthur, the Lands Commission’s acting executive secretary, who announced this yesterday, said the goal was to make sure the investor provided the resources necessary to carry out the intervention so that the Lands Commission could repay the investment over a longer period of time with internally generated funds. project

In terms of the procedures for the investor to join, “we have reached an advanced stage,” he declared.

When Benito Owusu-Bio, a Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources in charge of Land and Forestry, conducted a working visit to the Lands Commission’s client service and access unit, Mr. Arthur made this statement.

The deputy minister’s visit was a response to the secretary of state’s order to the Lands Commission to take prompt action to eradicate the causes of corruption at the government organization.

The Lands Commission was identified as Ghana’s most corrupt institution in 2021 research by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The information displayed the top bribe-taking organizations in Ghana, with Lands Commission employees accepting the largest bribes among Ghanaian public servants.

The investigation revealed that commission employees accepted bribes in cash, with an average bribe amount of GHC 1,669.

The client service section immediately replaced all front desk staff with technical personnel in response to the minister’s order.

Extensive changes

According to Mr. Arthur, the investor collaboration was a thorough step that would aid in the development of a strong system to root out actions that encouraged corruption.

According to Mr. Arthur, digitally mapping the nation is essential because it will eliminate the situation where different agencies create maps according to their own requirements.

He explained that the Lands Commission would create a national geographic data infrastructure through the digital mapping process, enabling all agencies to use that data for their needs.

He said that doing so would lower costs, enhance data quality, and ensure standardization.

In order to shed its reputation for corruption, Mr. Owusu-Bio emphasized that the commission needs to step up its reforms in the areas of human resources, structures, and processes.

The Lands Commission needs to shed its negative reputation among the general public, he said, and that is what is vital.

He praised the public-private partnership effort and said it will provide the commission with resources to carry out its job.

The deputy minister emphasized the requirement for the Lands Commission to ensure the removal of all illegitimate service providers.

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