‘Political’ contractors responsible for shoddy road works – Contractors to Roads Minister

The Progressive Road Contractors Association of Ghana has reminded the Minister of Roads and Highways, Kwesi Amoako-Attah to “look within” for the contractors who do shoddy jobs across the country.

According to the association, the sector minister knows the contractors who do sub-standard jobs in the built industry of the country.

It added that shoddy jobs in the road sector are done by the “political contractors” brought on board by the politicians themselves.

The Vice-President for the Association, Mr Hammond Larbi, made this statement in response to the minister's comment that the government will not pay road contractors who do shoddy jobs.

Mr Amoako-Attah served the warning on Thursday, 16 December at the opening to traffic of the 2.5-kilometer Nanakrom-School Junction road located in the Adentan Municipality, Accra.

According to Mr Amoako-Attah, the ministry has put in place all the necessary measures to stop contractors from doing an unprofessional job.

He noted, “We have taken all [the] necessary technical steps to avoid that and we want to make sure that road construction is professionally done.

The minister further revealed that contractors hoping to work on government projects will have to go through the process to prove their ability to do a professional job before being awarded contracts.

“Even now, there is a problem in the country where all contractors are being asked to go through reclassification processes because that will inform us on the type of work a particular contractor can do and their capacity and competency to execute a particular job”, he said.

“In the past, these were not there and people who didn’t even own wheelbarrows were parading themselves as contractors,” the minister stated.

He also indicated that the government is keen on ensuring that Ghanaians are provided with quality roads.

“We are providing the people of this country with high-level infrastructure, Never again will Ghanaians be denied value for money in whatever we do.”

He added, “In the roads sector, let me put it on record strongly that there is no contractor in this country who would be allowed to provide poor infrastructure in terms of road construction, bridges, or whatever that we will pay for.”

The 2.5-kilometer Nanakrom-School Junction Road was completed ahead of the scheduled date by the Oswal Investments Group.

However, the road contractors say the minister must stop playing the ostrich because he knows the culprits; political contractors, who suddenly spring up the moment either of the two major political parties – National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New Patriotic Party (NPP) come to power.

“Politicians, after winning power, bring onboard new contractors with no expertise whatsoever and they end up getting all the juicy jobs”, Mr Larbi said.

He noted that these are people who claim to be contractors even though they have no such experience.

Such political contractors, he added, have strong ties with the corridors of power and so end up collecting mobilizations without executing any job while the qualified contractors suffer to even get paid for quality work done.