UE ROAD CONTRACTORS HOLD AGM (PAGE 20, JAN 29, 2010)

THE Upper East Regional Chairman of the Association of Road Contractors (ASROC), Mr Edward Ghanem, has called for the re-examination of over-dependence on the Road Fund for local contractors.
Addressing the annual general meeting (AGM) of members in Bolgatanga, Mr Ghanem proposed that the Road Fund should rather be made to supplement a substantial national budget allocation for road infrastructure development.
According to Mr Ghanem, the consolidated fund should bear at least 70 per cent of road development, maintenance, rehabilitation and repair cost with the balance coming from the Road Fund.
“This activity is the responsibility of the central government everywhere and should not be ceded to any other authority as it is the case in Ghana,” he said.
Mr Ghanem expressed concern about the plight of road contractors in general and the non-payment of members in particular, adding that despite assurances by the government the situation on the ground was not the best.
“We (local contractors) are still wallowing in stressful financial conditions with banks’ interests swallowing the value of our outstanding loans,” he stated.
Mr Ghanem said although the government recently voted GH¢160 million for the payment of contractors, that money could only cater for less than 10 local contractors out of the over 400 valid local claims.
“This means nearly all local claims will remain unpaid while our foreign counterparts will be fully paid,” he said.
“The construction industry as the largest employer after [the] government should be given top priority in the order of things, since we are the front-runner in national development,” he stressed.
“We are also the barometer for measuring the health of any economy and therefore, a haphazard handling of contractors’ issues can only beget national stagnation and cause suffering to large numbers of workers, create unemployment and become a dangerous recipe for nurturing social vices, including armed robbery, violent crimes and burglaries,” Mr Ghanem said.
He observed that alongside the non-payment of contractors was the steep decline of the industry with many local contractors becoming redundant and idle. According to him, with the few jobs the contractors get from time to time, the payment rates were so low that most of the contractors ended up with debts instead of profits on completion of projects.
Mr Ghanem stated that the Procurement Law 663 had not helped matters, adding that since its introduction a few years ago by the previous regime, the industry had suffered untold hardships resulting in the stagnation contractors were going through.
He, therefore, called for the repeal of the law or its review to reflect realities on the ground and advance national development.
Another deficiency, Mr Ghanem observed, was the terms and implications of the lowest evaluated bidder, and called for its review and to be replaced with the original bidding criterion of plus or minus 10 of the engineers’ estimated price as it pertained before.
“When contractors are being paid realistic prices, quality work can be expected, assured and the shoddy work syndrome will be broken forever. After all, shoddy payments can only result in shoddy work,” he said.
Mr Ghanem bemoaned the failure of members of the association to pay their annual dues, and urged them to honour their financial obligation to enhance the smooth operations of the association.