Private Legal Practitioner, Gabby Otchere-Darko
• Gabby Otchere-Darko is alleged to be close a friend of Sir David Adjaye and the one behind the contracts Adjaye is enjoying from government
• The Ghana Institute Architects has accused the government of flouting procedures in giving Adjaye Associates the contract for the design of the Agenda 111 facilities
• David Adjaye also designed the National cathedral
Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, cousin to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has been cited by two leading members of the National Democratic Congress as the person allegedly assisting Sir David Adjaye secure huge government contracts.
Government has incurred the wrath of Ghanaian architects with the awarding of contracts to David Adjaye associates owned by Sir David Adjaye.
Contributing to the discussion on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana program, the Member of Parliament for Adaklu Constituency, Governs Kwame Agbodza said he has reason to believe that David Adjaye is leveraging on his relationship with Gabby Otchere-Darko to get contracts.
He said that since the projects are not advertised for bidding then there is someone within the corridors of government who hints David Adjaye of these opportunities.
This person he reckons is Gabby Otchere-Darko who he claims has a relationship with Adjaye.
“David Adjaye smells everything architecture in this country. Does it mean there is someone in government who always calls him that there is something here so come for it? I have already alleged that Gabby is your friend (referring to Randy Abbey). I’m saying this because in the view of many people including myself, Gabby is at the centre of all of this” he said.
Similar sentiments were expressed by Edudzi Tamekloe on the Thursday, August 26 edition of the show.
Edudzi inferred that David Adjaye has a great relationship with Gabby Otchere-Darko and that has become his launchpad into government business.
“When Gabby’s own friend David Adjaye … All government related (contracts) that he has done are sole sourced. All the contractors on Agenda 111 were taken through sole sourcing not even one competitive tendering. If you are going by the value of the hospital which is $16 million per hospital, we are dealing with $1.6bn through restrictive tendering. Today, people are writing on Facebook that they have saved money for the Republic of Ghana.”
Edudzi said that the continuous engagement of Sir David Adjaye as designer for key infrastructure projects through sole sourcing is an affront to President Akufo-Addo’s promise of protecting the public purse.
“When President Akufo-Addo said he was going to protect the public purse, he should have told us he was going to use David Adjaye to do that. We thought we were dealing with the pandemic but its obvious, President Akufo-Addo and his government have decided to profit from the pandemic. It is regrettable and should not be encouraged. You cannot promise to protect the public purse and take the purse away.”