Road contractors have said government’s year of roads agenda cannot be fulfilled due to the finance minister’s attitude in releasing funds for the project.
According to the contractors, the finance minister, Ken Ofori Atta has been adamant to release funds for the road infrastructure.
President Akuffo at his last media encounter in December last year, said his government would embark on an aggressive road development across Ghana in the year 2020, saying “Next year is the year we will adopt as the year of roads.”
Speaking on Onua FM’s Yensempa morning show, national chairman for the Road Contractors Mr. John Afful said government has hastily awarded innumerable road contracts with no budgetary allocation, which in his view, would compel most contractors to abandon projects due to lack of funds.
Mr Afful was reacting to recent directives from Minister for Roads, Kwesi Amoako Attah to the Ghana Highway Authority to terminate and blacklist contractors who are delaying in executing their contracts.
He admitted that government have the power to abort contracts if a contractor fails to meet deadline but not when the government is indebted.
He bemoaned banks refusal to give out loans to contractors due to failure to pay back on time.
“Contractors who have gone for loans to complete road projects are under severe and persistent pressure from banks,” he stated.
Mr. Afful appealed to the government to establish a bank which would solely be assigned to support road contractors with loans to execute contracts even if the government is not able to pay in due time.
GhanaFeed.com
