The NDC Professionals Forum – USA has slammed the National Rent Assistant Scheme which was launched by Vice-President Mahamadu Bawumia, describing it as a misplace priority and unsustainable.
In a statement released yesterday and signed by its President, Arnold Appiah, the Forum said the scheme lacks transparency and clarity and only legalizes the exorbitant amount landlords fleece from tenants by making them pay rent advance for two years.
According to the NDC Proforum-USA, with this initiative, the government is reneging on it responsibility of laws enforcement and rather attracting landlords to continue squeezing the life out of Ghanaians when it comes to accommodation. It said the GHC 30 million funds of the initiative should be used to resource the Rent Control Department to equip them to handle their mandate which includes ensuring landlords do not fleece their tenants.
Below is the full text of the statement issued by the NDC Proforum-USA.
NATIONAL RENTAL ASSISTANCE SCHEME IS A MISPLACED PRIORITY AND UNSUSTAINABLE
The NDC Professionals Forum – USA is deeply concerned and worried about the misplaced and unsustainable priorities by the President Nana Akufo Addo and Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia led administration. This concern comes as a result of the Official Launch of the National Rental Assistance Scheme (NRAS).
While Proforum USA welcomes the concept and thoughts by Government to support Ghanaians to gain access to affordable accommodation through this scheme, Proforum USA believes the current state of the economy cannot sustain such an initiative.
This initiative lacks transparency and clarity as to the statistics that informed the number of Ghanaians affected in this predicament in terms of age, employment status, marital status, family size and geographical locations amongst other important indicators that could drive and inform such an initiative.
By this initiative, the government is reneging on it responsibility of laws enforcement and rather attracting landlords to continue squeezing the life out of Ghanaians when it comes to accommodation. The 30 million cedi funds should be used to resource the rent control as a body.
In as much as Proforum USA is aware of this rental issue which is popularly referred to as “Rent Advance” of two years or more, Proforum USA believes that it’s against the laws of Ghana. However, Rent Control, which is a state institution mandated to ensure that landlords do not take undue advantage of Ghanaians when it comes to accommodation must be resourced enough to carry out their functions. Indeed, this ‘abnormal’ rent advance issue has been condoned primarily because of rent control’s inability to implement the laws when it comes to accommodation due to lack of resources.
The ideal situation is for the government to empower the Rent Control Department with the same resources or more than it intends to loan to Ghanaians for this initiative to enable them work for the betterment of all and not a selected few.
Acknowledging the problems and ignoring the right solutions by adopting a fancy and populist approach is merely entrenching the existing illegality as far as renting of buildings in Ghana is concerned.
Most importantly, the laid down procedure in accessing the intended facility seems selective; it is also a recipe for corruption. In this era of digitalization, one does not need to show up by face to authenticate certain credentials he/she has.
What is required is for a portal to be created for both tenants and landlords to upload their credentials including details of the facilities online for the purposes of consistency and transparency.
Above all, at a crucial moment where Ghana’s economy is in shambles and the government cannot service its loans and cannot honor commitment to state agencies including payments of bonds to investors, embarking on such an initiative is a misplaced priority and unconscionable.
With government at this moment cannot fund its flagship programs such as Free SHS, NABCO, teacher trainee allowance and many more, this project is likely to suffer the same fate and will be a complete waste of state funds.
Proforum would like to take this opportunity to advise the Nana Addo administration to cut down on the size of government, avoid profligate expenditure and ensure there’s value for money in terms of transactions on behalf of the state.
Signed Arnold Appiah
President
+1 805 871 9281
Source: Daily Post