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Some local road contractors have incurred the wrath of the Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD, Dr Stephen Kwabena Opuni, for failing to execute cocoa roads awarded to them to appreciable levels long after they had been given mobilization monies.

These contractors namely Ussuya Ghana Limited and Faccol Ghana Limited have been awarded the 8 kilometer Obuasi junction Dunkwa on Offin and the 24 kilometer Dunkwa on Offin Ayanfuri roads respectively but have performed abysmally so far, resulting in the stern warning from the COCOBOD boss.

Accompanied by the sector Minister of Roads and Highways, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini to inspect some of the cocoa roads in the Central and Ashanti Regions, Dr Opuni warned that COCOBOD would not countenance any further delay whatsoever from these road contractors.

He opined that the roads are very critical to the socio-economic progress of the communities and therefore the two companies must expedite action to see to its completion.

During the tour, it came to light that the two companies have covered less than 30 percent of the agreed contract terms, even though they have received their mobilization monies long ago.

“The message is clear that any contractor that is under-performing is going to receive a final warning letter, if they don’t improve on the work they are doing, we are going to terminate the contracts,” he stressed.

Dr. Opuni, who appeared furious, said it was very unfortunate that a contract signed in April, 2015 and have been paid advanced monies for mobilization to come to site in may that year, had been delayed more than three months before they moved to site.

He urged that they should have done about 77 per cent of the project if they were serious, but at the moment they have done about 48 per cent.

“If you do not make up for the 30 per cent deficit within the month, I will terminate the contract,” he charged, pointing out that he would no longer entertain excuses.

Dr. Opuni underscored the importance the COCOBOD attaches to the cocoa roads, saying “last year and this year we have budgeted already, 300 million dollars for road construction and we continue to budget because we can’t complete all roads in the year, we will continue to construct roads in cocoa growing regions until all the roads are in good shape.

For his part, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini expressed serious concern in the Dunkwa town roads which are far behind schedule, saying the contractor is under-performing.

“Our purpose is simply to do a snap shot inspection of the roads, identify those contractors who are not performing warn them seriously and if they fail to heed the warning we terminate the contracts," he emphasized.

He contended that having awarded the roads, it was important that people living within the corridor would feel the presence of the contractors and appreciate what the government is doing to alleviate their hardship, adding however that the delay is rather compounding the hardship of the people.

Alhaji Fuseini urged the delaying contractors to increase their tempo to avoid termination of their contracts, saying “contracts are awarded differently and they are ending at different dates and that is why we are able to identify that they are underperforming because we have also given them schedule, so if they failed to meet the schedule performance target then we know they are not performing.”