Bureau of Public safety charges MMDAs to scrutinise construction work in districts

The Bureau of Public Safety has called on local authorities to better monitor constriction work in their jurisdictions to avoid accidents occurring from the collapse of buildings under construction.

This comes after a building collapse in Adabraka on Friday, January 22, 2021.

Two persons were rushed to the Greater Accra Regional hospital after a portion of a one-storey building they were working on within the Rev. Ernest Bruce Memorial Church premises at Adabraka caved in.

Local Assemblies have the mandate to issue permits and monitor construction activities within their jurisdiction.

Speaking to Citi News, the Technical Lead for the built environment at the Bureau of Public Safety, Sampson Deklu, insisted that such incidents can be averted if the Metropolitan and Municipal Assemblies needed vigilant on the job.

“Definitely once a building collapses, the first point of call will be the assembly because they are the overseers of that construction in the community we live in so they are to give us answers of what could have been the cause.”

“Is it that there was no permit or is it a structural failure, are you going to hold the engineers or architects responsible? So the Assemblies need to give us these responses because we just can’t sit on the fence and assume for ourselves,” he said.