The management of the Takoradi Polytechnic has reconsidered its earlier decision to annul a contract it had entered into with the management of CIC/BSY Hostels Limited to construct an eight-storey hostel facility for the school, as a means of easing the accommodation 'troubles' on campus.

The decision by the polytechnic follows a fresh agreement now reached between the management of the polytechnic and the CIC/BSY Hostels, giving new life to the project. In the new correspondence, where T-Poly has given backing to the project, the Rector of the school, Mr. Emmanuel Okumi-Andoh, wrote to the management of CIC under the heading 'Commitment To Contract.'

The said letter reads: "I wish to express that we are happy to learn of CIC's commitment to delivering the student hostels project, as spelt out in the BOOT Agreement signed between the Polytechnic and BSY Hostels. We would also like to reaffirm our readiness to work with CIC to help ease any implementation difficulty they might experience.

"Under the BOOT Agreement, T-Poly would make available 2 acre plots of land in addition to site plans, which shall also be produced within a week for the plot. That apart, the polytechnic would also produce formal commitment to book and collect rent for each academic year, on behalf of BSY Hostels.

"Once we have made available these items to satisfy CIC request, we would expect CIC to deliver complete designs to include full working mechanical drawings. We would further expect CIC to deliver complete design to include mechanical drawing by 30th October 2015, as indicated in its letter."

The $6m hostel project agreement was signed between the two parties late last year. Under the agreement, CIC was to provide 1,000 housing units to be completed within a period of 27 months. The facility would be equipped with modern facilities, and Common Interest Communities, a US-based housing company which is financing it, would run it for a period of 25 years, after which it would hand it over to the school.

The facility would contain single, double, and four-in-one occupancy rooms for the convenience of the students. However, the agreement was nearly broken by CIC, compelling the management of Takoradi Polytechnic to consider pulling out, following delay in the kick-start of the project by the investor company.

In a letter dated the 13th of August 2015, and sighted by The Chronicle, under the heading 'Contemplating on Annulment of Contract', the Polytechnic Rector wrote: "CIC acquired BSY Hostels which has the contract to construct hotel accommodation for the Takoradi Polytechnic.

Till date, CIC hasn't made good on any of the timelines that are in the BOOT agreement - the relevant legal document for this project. As a result we, the administrators of this school, are now seriously contemplating the prospect of annulling this contract to redesign to another party, as CIC is currently in serious breach of the terms of the contract."

It continued: "If CIC perhaps is able to take steps soon enough to cure their breach of contract, we might consider our current course of action to prevent any negative publicity in the Ghanaian electronic media. But, as things stand now, we will continue with our current action, and we plan to report back to the Ghanaian and other international media once we have reached a final conclusion."

Source: The Chronicle