Bono East Minister Orders MCE to Occupy Residence
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Bono East Minister Orders Techiman MCE to Occupy Abandoned Official Residence by December
There’s an official residence sitting in Techiman that’s supposed to house the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) but nobody has actually lived in it since 2017, despite significant public money already spent renovating it. Now, the Bono East Regional Minister wants that to change.
Regional Minister Francis Owusu Antwi issued the order after touring government projects in the Techiman Municipality and inspecting the residence firsthand. His instruction was clear: the current MCE must move in by the end of December 2026.
Seeing a facility built specifically for the President’s representative in the Municipality sitting empty for nearly a decade clearly struck a nerve with Owusu Antwi. According to him, successive MCEs have lived elsewhere since 2017, with ongoing renovation work repeatedly cited as the reason the building remained unoccupied.
For the Minister, this wasn’t just an inconvenience it’s been an avoidable expense. He pointed out that the arrangement has exposed MCEs to unnecessary risks while also racking up costs that the Municipal Assembly and the state didn’t need to bear.
We have to make good use of our resources, he said. I have instructed the MCE to make sure he moves into the residence by the close of the year. I will be back in December to check.
Beyond the wasted spending, Owusu Antwi also flagged concerns about the physical condition of the building itself, which he says is already showing signs of wear despite the renovation work that’s already gone into it. His worry is straightforward leaving it unused any longer could accelerate that deterioration and push up the cost of future repairs even further.
For years, Techiman’s MCEs have reportedly relied on private accommodation or hotels instead, with the Municipal Assembly covering those costs the whole time. That pattern has understandably raised broader concerns about how publicly funded projects get monitored and managed once the work is done and why a completed, renovated facility was allowed to sit idle for so long.
With December now set as the deadline, Owusu Antwi made clear he isn’t just issuing the directive and walking away. He’s planning to return personally to confirm whether the MCE has actually made the move.
