Ghana Drama Episode Two: Defects List

So Adios Holiflats at Airport Residential Area – the apartment that I have stayed for 3 months ever since I touched down in Accra on 19-September, 2009. Holiflats, not because it is holy or sort, simply it is owned and run by the same operator of Holiday Inn, Accra.

I moved in to this house at Abelemkpe on Monday 30-November and the first week was simply chaotic:-

• First and foremost there was not water supply to the house, Seth the agent told us the water mains connection was done but at the moment there was no water supply to this area and he had bought water from the truck to fill up the tank for us. Well, that’s quite generous for him as I told myself as it is quite common for shortage of water supply in Accra area so we just took for granted that Seth did all he could.
• Secondly the defect list I emailed to Seth was not duly done. For instance the “pin-holes” on the ceiling, water-stain inside the toilet, among others were not duly rectified. My request for putting a roof over the car porch had fallen into deaf ear. My written request for additional works like office layout, partitioning, etc. were not answered.
• I had to buy water from the truck at GHc80 per 750-gallon. But our storage tank can only hold 450-gallon. Each time we bought water, they supplied one full truck and pumped in whatever the tank can hold and went away with the balance; yet we still have to pay for the full truck load. Between 30-November and 15-December I have bought GHc210 worth of water. Oh ya, Ghc1 = RM2.44, the amount I spent on water can last me more than one year in Malaysia on water bill. The main cause of the high water consumption was severe pipe leakage and they simply failed to contain the problem!
• On 12-December I saw my neighbour’s Domestic Helper watering his garden and only then I found out that their water is from the main pipe. So I had to personally (not my Liaison Officer) summon the Maintenance Supervisor of Goldkey, Ishmael to tackle the problem. Ishmael is a tall and tough Ghanaian with a high-pitched voice. After a detailed discussion with him on my problems, he called all relevant parties immediately and promised me to iron out all issues within the same day. They managed to complete all rectification works and by 5:30pm when I came back to the house, Ishmael had arranged for the tank to be filled up and advised me to monitor the water in the tank and kept him duly informed of any leakage and he promised to come back at a phone call.
• What I am trying to say here is I have a Liaison Officer who is paid USD700 a month (a top range salary here fixed by my HQ top management from KL) and who is supposed to assist me in dealing with all these petty chores and I have a Domestic Helper whose job is to do all the house cleaning and take care of the household appliances including checking and monitoring any defective parts. It ended up I have to worry all these hassles myself. Ishmael on the other hand is not under my employment instead gave me full satisfaction with what he endeavored on his course of duty.
• On second day when I came back from outside, I found to my horror that the floor tiles in my Master Bedroom were bulging up! This warranted for immediate repair of substantial part of the floor tiles. So I had to move out of the Master Bedroom and squatted in one of the two guest rooms. That was on 1-December and I left it to my Liaison Officer to do all the coordination works. By 7-December the rectification has not been completed due to shortage of floor tiles and of course poor coordination between the liaising parties.



To be continued…