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By Benjamin Mensah, GNA
Accra, July 10, GNA – Some Angry Members of
Ghana Chamber of the Construction Industry (GCCI) took Wednesday the
offices of the Ministries of Roads and Highways and Transport, and descended
heavily on the Ghana government for not paying them for contract work
executed for several years now.
Wearing red stripes and speaking with anger, the
subcontractors set up in the offices of the ministries and several media
interviews about their difficult situation, threatening a mbad demonstration of their most
2000 members in good standing.
They also said that they would take legal proceedings
against the government if it continued to delay the payment of their money.
Some innuendo from the Transport
roads and highways, with their leaders holding an ad hoc meeting
Meeting with Ministers and Deputy Minister of Finance.
At the end of the meeting, in the presence of
Ministers of Transport, Roads and Roads; and Deputy Finance Minister Kwaku
Kwarteng, the room executives called for calm and badured the
subcontractors for a meeting scheduled next week with relevant ministries
a road map for the payment of the accumulated debt owed to them.
Mr Emmanuel Martey, President of the Chamber,
who represented the contactors at the meeting told reporters that,
the payment of arrears has not been made by the government since 2016.
He supported entrepreneurs by demanding
payment of the debt owed to them for the executed contracts, saying that they were not
begging for money from the government but asking what was legally their
of.
Mr. Martey did not exclude that some
unscrupulous people could take advantage of the government's delay in paying for
contracts work executed for front and extort money from contractors for
help them to have their money as claimed by the contractors.
Mr. Abdul Rashid Issah, member of the
the Ghana Business Association, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the
demand for payment of the debts due to them was in no way politically motivated.
He said: "We are here to play the drums and let
The Ghanaians and the Minister of Roads and Roads know that we are
Pain. We paid engineers,
workers and workers as carpenters, masons, diggers, electricians; and for all
the years the government has not paid.
"The government announces that
he paid contractors, but how many of us are paid? Only about one or two per
hundred of the contractors are paid, and the rest is described as NDC
Entrepreneurs.
"We know that payment is a process, and we
I do not understand why the majority of us have not been paid for almost five years
now. Should I wear party colors before being paid what is owed? We are in
no way to beg for money, but asking the government to pay for the contract work
completed."
The callers "goro boys", Mr. Issah said what
was the most boring were some faceless people at the Ministry of Roads and
Highways and the Department of Transport who acted as agents and demanded that
the contractors paid them sums personally in order to facilitate
payments.
"Sir, they will not take those who have
small amounts to collect, but come with questionable and folded documentation
to have those with higher amounts. "
Mr. Mohamed Sheriff, another member of the
Chamber, questioned the use of the road fund and other sources of financing for
financing contract works, indicating that the delay affected the execution of "cocoa
roads and other works.
He wondered if the ministries were not
causing financial losses to the State of Ghana because the government should
pay interest on millions of Cedis in Ghana, late payments and
the reissue of contract certificates and coaching practices.
GNA
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