GRA to get new headquarters; save GH¢4 million in annual rent

Construction works for new GRA edifice starts

GRA pays Devtraco GH¢74.36 million as mobilisation fees

New GRA headquarters to be completed within two years - Project Manager

The revenue arm of government, Ghana Revenue Authority, is set to commence the construction of a new ultra-modern head office situated in Accra.

The move which was approved by the Board and Management of the Authority is expected to save the Authority more than GH¢4 million in annual rent for head office staff alone.

Addressing journalists during a tour of the site on June 20, Project Manager, Sidney Quaye said the construction works started in January this year and is now due to be completed in about two years.

He added that the project is being executed by Devtraco Builders Limited, which won a competitive tender at about GH¢491 million.

Sidney Quaye said the company was paid about GH¢74.36 million as mobilisation fees, paving the way for the construction process to begin.

During a media tour of the site on Monday, June 20, workers were seen excavating the ground and finalizing processes for the foundational pillars to be erected.

Sidney Quaye, however, said work was progressing smoothly and the two-year timeline would be met. He also gave the assurance that the work is being done on schedule.

The tour to the construction site was to appraise the scope and progress of work on the project, which GRA described as historic, transformational and necessary to ending the years of renting and the scattered nature of its head office staff due to the lack of a spacious head office facility to accommodate all.

An Assistant Commissioner and Head of Communications and Public Affairs at GRA, Florence Asante told journalists that the project was long overdue, given its immense benefits to the authority and the country as a whole.

Mrs Asante said when completed, the project would help to address the office accommodation and parking space constraints facing the authority.

She added that the current GRA head office located at the Ministries was unable to house all the relevant staff.

As a result, she said some staff, who were supposed to be operating from the head office, were currently operating from the Shippers House, the Heritage Towers and the Platinum Heights while others operated from the Osu Revenue Towers and staff at the Customs Head Office.

Beyond the inconvenience of not being under one roof, Mrs Asante said it was expensive to run the rented offices.

She pointed out that it cost the authority more than GH¢4 million every year to rent the six separate buildings with a total office area of almost 4,600 square meters.

This, she said made the construction of a single office for all staff a necessity, economical and long overdue.

Mrs. Asante further explained that the new head office building would have enough office spaces and adjoining infrastructure for all of GRA’s head office staff.

Conceived around 2016, the GRA head office under construction was initially envisaged to be sited at the Airport Area, opposite the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, in Accra.

Mrs Asante, however, said it was relocated to the current site at Kanda in line with the government’s decision to host key agencies of the Ministry of Finance in one location to be referred to as the national financial enclave.

She explained that the Kanda site was found to be appropriate for the government’s agenda and it had since been allocated to GRA, the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), among other agencies to start the construction of their head offices.

According to her, the change in site delayed the project timelines but expressed the hope that work would now continue unabated.

She said the authority and the contractor had also agreed to execute the project in the new site under the same terms as was agreed with the earlier one although the Kanda project was bigger than the one that was to be executed at the Airport Area.

The new GRA head office complex when completed would boast of a seven-storey twin tower with a total office area of 13,725 square meters (sqm) – enough to host all the headquarters staff.

Meanwhile, over the years, GRA has renovated and refurbished its current head office buildings to make them fit for purpose.

MA/FNOQ