Workers of the Department of Parks and Gardens have vowed to resist any attempt to release about three acres of the Department’s land at Cantonments in Accra to the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) for the construction of its head office.
The workers, speaking at a durbar, rejected GoldBod’s request for the land and questioned the process through which the government agency had approached the department.
They argued that GoldBod, as a government institution, should have channelled its request through the Jubilee House rather than directly seeking to acquire land belonging to the Department of Parks and Gardens.
One of the workers warned that they would resist any attempt by government agencies to take over the department’s land.
“Goldbod is a government agency. The Jubilee House should have written the letter requesting the piece of land from us,” the worker said.
The worker added that the department would oppose similar requests from other government agencies, insisting that the land was needed for its own operations.
“Any agency, be it Tourism, Cocobod, or whatever that comes to make such a request, we will resist it with our blood. Because we know it is fraudulent,” the worker said.
The workers also challenged GoldBod to acquire its own land if it required space for a permanent head office rather than seeking to take over land currently used by Parks and Gardens.
“This is where we work; we will not allow it. Goldbod should go and purchase its own land if it needs space for a head office. We can make good use of our land,” another worker said.
The opposition comes after GoldBod formally requested approximately three acres of land at Cantonments from the Department of Parks and Gardens for the construction of its permanent head office.
In its proposal, GoldBod offered to construct and develop an administrative head office facility for Parks and Gardens as part of a proposed arrangement for the allocation of the land.
The workers, however, rejected the proposition that GoldBod should build a new facility for the Department in exchange for the land.
“There’s no way we can allow someone from Goldbod to come and say it wants to build a head office for us,” a worker said.
“If we plan properly, we will be able to build the head office on ourselves.”
The workers maintained that the Department could develop and make better use of its existing land if adequate planning and resources were made available.
