The Association of Road Contractors (ASROC), Ghana, and Progressive Road Contractors Association (PROCA) have appealed to the government to pay the whopping GH�180 million owed them to enable them also pay their workers. The National Chairman of ASROC, Joseph Ebo Hewton, who made the appeal, stated that for the past 16 months, the government had failed to release monies for maintenance works executed by the contractors.
He told journalists in Accra that due to the government�s failure to pay contractors, a total of 68,000 kilometres of roads in the country were lacking maintenance, and posing a threat to road users and vehicles transporting goods and services.
�We brought this serious problem to the attention of government, and in our first meeting with the President when he assumed office, he assured us that government was going to do something about it, but yet we are seeing nothing,� Hewton stated.
He also raised the concern that delayed payment was not only affecting the industry, but other sectors like agriculture, since farmers are unable to transport their produce to market centres, and as a result, lose revenues. The General Secretary of the Contractors and Building Materials Workers� Union of Ghana, Pius Quainoo, also added that over 10,000 building and road construction workers had been laid off due to delayed payment by government.
He said as a result of delayed payment, local contractors are unable to attract and retain key workers, stifling the growth of their companies and their capacities to generate employment. �The soaring unemployment has economic and social negative consequences on the country, and it doesn�t give good image publicity to the building and construction sector in Ghana,� he said.
The General Secretary called on the government to intervene in compelling foreign construction companies to partner or sub-contract parts of their procured workers to local companies to facilitate technology transfer, adding that �by so doing , the local companies would be in the position to overcome any real or perceived deficiencies.�
He further urged the country to desist from the practice where contracts are awarded to party faithful; �We cannot grow the local construction industry that way. If we do not discourage this tendency, the future of the industry would become bleaker.�
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