Apiate reconstruction: Your bricklaying skills need improvement – Implementation team tells contractors

The Apiate Reconstruction Implementation Team (ARIT) on Thursday, December 8, 2022, paid a working visit to Apiate to, among other things, hold an emergency meeting with the contractors working on the Apiate Reconstruction project.

Chairing the meeting on behalf of Mr Benito Owusu-Bio, the Chairman of ARIT and Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Hermans Blankson, a member of the ARIT Committee and the Ghana Institute of Architects, indicated that his most pressing concern had to do with the overall work being done properly and also meeting the set targets.

He noted that the quality of construction work done on the site needs to improve and, therefore, charged the consultants to do a better job in supervising the reconstruction adequately to minimise mistakes or better still, avoid them completely.

Speaking on the bricklaying work done, Mr Hermans urged the contractors to get a better understanding of the methodology to ensure that the bricks are laid perfectly.

"You need to get it absolutely right from the very beginning because from where I stand, your brick-laying skills need more room for improvement, so, get your act together," he told them.

He, on the other hand, instructed the consultants to request the number of bricks needed by each contractor and ensure that those producing bricks speed up work to meet the demand.

"This is crucial to us, so, as a matter of urgency, get a supply matrix for the brick supply and get us real figures as soon as the end of the day".

"In terms of supervision, you need to ensure that the bricks are well-dried and cured before contractors use them to build. Regardless of the fact that we need to finish on schedule, we also need to do good and quality work," he added.

Mr Blankson Hermans underscored the importance of the role of urban roads in the beauty of construction on the site and urged them to bring their expertise on board by helping to finely demarcate the road margins to give the site a better look.

He reiterated the Chairman's comment on payment and requested the consultants to ensure that contractors present their payment certificates every month before payments are made.

In situations where contractors fail to raise the certificate, he asked that they put it into writing for proper documentation of every transaction for accountability.

Mr Walter Semordzie, the site manager with project consultant AESL, gave a progress summary on the overall work output.

He updated the house saying, on the whole, 32.1% of the work has been done on the site since the commencement of the project on the 5th of September 2022, and given the one-year timeframe, all contractors were supposed to finish the work by the 5th of June 2023.

He also gave an overview of the individual works being done by the various contractors, pointing out those meeting their target and those trailing behind but noted that on the whole, 90% of the total number of plots are currently being developed.

Mr Castro Kaliebu, the brick engineer on the site, who is from the Rural Housing Department, said so far, they have produced and supplied a good number of bricks to the contractors but have recently slowed down due to a sudden decrease in their staff strength.

He, however, assured the chairman that before the supply matrix is made available, they would have increased the number of staff, as he has requested workers from Accra to join him on the site.

Each contractor present was allowed to update the house on their work. They used the opportunity to explain why they were either making progress or trailing.

The contractors said financial constraints and the supply of bricks were their two major challenges.

They complained that the supply is not made on time – a situation that is delaying the development of the superstructure of the buildings – and pleaded with ARIT to fast-track the payment process.

The meeting saw representatives from all six construction companies: Builders.com, McCastro Company Ltd, Savannah Grande Ltd, MegaTech Plus Engineering Solutions Limited, MackSams Company Limited and Finness Company Limited.