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A leading member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has lambasted the Kufuor-led NPP administration for the construction and completion of a modern edifice to serve as the seat of government whiles the country had surmountable problems to tackle. He slammed the opposition party saying �Today, if the NPP was so shortsighted not to know that solving our water problem in this country was more paramount than building an Ashanti-styled Presidential Palace for us as a national edifice, and it was not the priority at that time and they choose to build that palace instead of providing water, should we leave it to rot?...It is tax payer�s money, we will make use to it.� President Mahama, on Thursday, relocated to the Flagstaff House as the new seat of government. At a short ceremony to symbolize the relocation of the seat of government to the magnificent edifice, President Mahama described the relocation as the closure of a chapter of Ghana�s history and the dawn of a new era. Present at the outdooring ceremony were President John Dramani Mahama, former President Jerry John Rawlings and Chief Justice Georgina Theodora Wood among other dignitaries. The over $70 million edifice, which has office and residential premises for the president, has been the subject of a hot debate after the late President John Mills� persistent refusal to relocate there. The NPP, in 2007, pulled down the old structure of the Flagstaff House and rebuilt it with a grant from the Indian government to serve as the new seat of government. The Kufuor government commissioned the project in 2008. But President Atta Mills refused to use the facility when he took over power in 2009, citing security reasons. In that same year, however, part of it was handed over to the Foreign Affairs Ministry temporarily after its offices were razed down by fire. Consequently, the decision to relocate the seat of government from the Osu Castle to the Flagstaff House was met with a barrage of criticisms from some stalwarts of the opposition party, who wondered why the President would now want to use the facility. But Samuel George debunked claims that the ruling party abandoned the use of the Flagstaff House during the reign of the late President. He stated categorically in a radio discussion programme that there is no truth in such claims since the late President undertook some official duties in the Presidential Palace. �It is not true that the NDC abandoned that building for five years, it is not true. President Mills of blessed memory received credentials in that building. It was put to use; it was put to (good) use. If you say it was left to run down, it is a lie, a plain lie,� he asserted. The NDC activist stridently asserted on Citi Fm�s News analysis program; �The Big Issue� on Saturday that the office of the Vice President within the Flagstaff House, sometimes became waterlogged when there was a heavy downpour; one of the reasons that led to the NDC�s partial abandonment of the facility.