¢132bn blown on shoddy road

...As GHA and SONITRA in limbo over handing over of Apedwa-Bunso (Accra-Kumasi ) road.

GHANA HIGHWAYS Authority and Sonitra Construction Ltd. are in a state of limbo over the handing over of ¢132 billion Apadwa-Bunso section of Accra-Kumasi road to the government due to shoddy works. The Sun’s investigation that was confirmed by the Managing Director of Sonitra Construction Ltd., Mr. J.

C. Kalfa, indicated that one year after the construction of the Apadwa-Bunso section of Accra-kumasi road it has developed huge defects as a result of what experts described as shoddy work. The deplorable state of the road that was supposed to last between 15 to 20 year has made it impossible for the contractor to hand it over to the government.

As Ghana Highways Authority (GHA) and the contractor is locked-up over the handing over, and what might have gone wrong, experts who the Sun spoke to called on the government to fire the Chief Executive of GHA and his top officials who supervised the construction of the multi -billion to serve as deterrent to others.

In calling for the dismissal of the top officials of GHA, road construction experts noted that even though there was GHA official together with a consultant supervising Sonitra, they could not detect the deplorable and shoddy works that was going on until the resigned Minister of Roads and Transport, Dr. Richard Anane and his team went on inspection before their attention was drawn that the road has recorded huge defects.

"For the Chief Executive Officer of GHA to endorse certificates running into billions for payment to the contractor without taking into account the state of the road under construction or drew government attention is an act of dishonesty,” an expert who pleaded anonymity told The Sun.

The Sun gathered that following the inspection by the former Minister of Road Transport, the GHA was questioned about the state of the road and why officials had kept mute over the developments on the road.

As a result, a team of three engineers were tasked to investigate the observations by the Minister that the road that was supposed to last between 15 to 20 years was in shamble with huge defects such as rutting, shoving and cracking less than one year before a handing over.

Due to this, three engineers from Central Materials laboratory of GHA on February 3, 2006, visited the road to ascertain the severity and extent of damage.

“A visual road condition survey was conducted and structural defects such as cracking, rutting and shoving were identified,” the engineers stated in their report.

Mr. Norbert Quamor during a recent interview with The Sun, debunked suggestion that the Apadwa-Bunso section of Accra-Kumasi road has failed. He said there was nothing wrong with the road and that everything about it was correct. When his attention was drawn to the fact that there was an existence of a report indicating that the road has developed problem and the situation has stalked the handing over to the government Quamor, said there was no such report and that if it existed he is not sure it was about Apadwa-Bunso road. “Have you used the road you are referring to recently, I am not sure that there is something wrong about that road,” he said.

However Mr. Kalfa, the managing Director of Sonitra in an interview told The Sun that his outfit indeed could not hand over the road to the government due to huge defects recorded.

According to Sonitra boss, the materials his company used were specifications stipulated in the contract.

“In fact the GHA engineers and the consultant could attest to the fact that we used the right materials but I don’t know what happened,” Kalfa told the Sun. He said the company was going to do defects correction and investigate the cost of the problem. He said if the mistake was from the GHA engineers who supervised the work or if the right materials were used but the problem was natural, his company would sub-charge the government for it.

He stated that it was not his company alone that has suffered such misfortune and mentioned Deawood Construction company that constructed Bunso-Ayinam section of the Accra-kumasi road.

However when his attention was drawn that the defects recorded at Apadwa-Bunso was unprecedented he held his breath.

He also blamed it on the long vehicles from neighbouring Burkina Faso and Cote-d’Ivoire that ply on the road as the cause of the huge defects.

In 2003 the government of Ghana awarded Apadwa-Bunso section of the Accra-Kumasi road to Sonitra with funding from World Bank. The World Bank provided over $10.3 million while the counterpart funds from the government was over ¢42 billion.

However due to the deplorable state of the new road the Sonitra after defects liability period could not hand over the road to the government. Sadly, the GHA which was supposed to alert the contractor and the government went to sleep until the inspection by the Minister before the officials of the outfit woke up from their slumber.