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BARRING ANY unforeseen circumstances, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) will today officially demand answers from the Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, on the current state of the controversial STX Housing Project following reports that the deal has hit a snag. The NPP MP for Bantama in the Ashanti Region, Cecilia Dapaah, who is the ranking member on Water Resources, Works and Housing, has confirmed to DAILY GUIDE she will be asking the Minister, Alban Bagbin, on the floor of Parliament, to inform Ghanaians why the housing project has not commenced months after a flamboyant sod-cutting ceremony by government. Ghanaians, Ms. Dapaah pointed out, must be told why government has failed to start the project without any hint of when it will start. Daily Guide reported yesterday that although officials of the STX Engineering & Construction Ghana Limited have entered into a contract with government for the construction of 200,000 houses in Ghana within five years, estimated at $10billion, the foreigners are leaving the country. The Koreans, according to sources, are leaving the country because of lack of trust from the government which had sidelined the Koreans. In addition, Koreans were said to be pulling out of the deal because they are persistently frustrated by attempts by the government to allegedly make them �irrelevant� in the process. However, the Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing, Alban Sumana Bagbin, debunked the reports that the STX Housing project was collapsing because the STX Korean partners were on the verge of pulling out of the deal. Reacting to Daily Guide�s story, Mr. Bagbin confirmed that government was dealing with B.K. Asamoah and J.B. Asafo-Boakye, without the Koreans who are the technical people. Mr. Bagbin however told Joy FM that the project was on course and that nothing would prevent its implementation. �I can confirm that government is committed and still committed to implementing the STX Housing Project. The commitment is unwavering, total and absolute,� Mr. Bagbin, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Nadowli West, said. He said the site for the houses would be cleared this month. Mr. Bagbin had told Joy FM in a previous interview about two months ago that land for the project would be cleared in June. He refuted the report that an insurance of $300 million had been paid even though the money for the project was not yet available, insisting that the �money for the project is available�. The funds for the project, Mr. Bagbin stated, was �coming by installments according to the Suppliers Credit Agreement�, adding that �The first installment will contain the insurance. It�s not like Ghana government is taking money from anywhere to pay for the insurance. The first installment contains part of the insurance that will be paid.� Daily Guide has learnt that a Nigerian bank has made available $10million for the commencement of the project, even though under the contract, the Korea Fund is supposed to make funding available for the project. The Koreans could not make the money available because the �oil for cash� in the agreement was expunged to their dissatisfaction, wondering where the Ghana government would get the $1.5billion to pay for the initial 30,000 houses for the security agencies. Daily Guide has also picked up signals that local real estate developers, GREDA are likely to be contacted by B.K. Asamoah to provide technical support in the event that the Koreans do not return to the table. GREDA had earlier offered to construct the 300,000 houses at half the price of the STX deal. Ms. Dapaah said she was unhappy with the way the Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing treated the Daily Guide story, saying there were more questions than answers on the STX housing deal. She indicated that there was no malice in demanding appropriate answers to the controversial deal, which suffered numerous setbacks in Parliament before it was eventually passed. �As a minister, I think he should appreciate the concerns of Ghanaians. Nobody is doing this out of mischief. I believe every Ghanaian has a right to know, more importantly when we have parted with a sovereign guarantee for a project because it�s the totality of Ghanaians that are being committed to this deal,� Ms. Dapaah told Joy FM.