Contractor worried about uncontrolled shoddy works

A renowned road contractor has expressed worry about the uncontrolled shoddy works in the road sector. Alhaji Abdallah Ahmed-Abdallah, Managing Director of PMC African Limited, a road construction firm established in 1985, observed that the way and manner licenses are being issued to road construction firms in the country are not the best, and something needs to be done.

He explained that applicants seeking license for road construction need to go through vigorous test and meet certain requirements before licenses should be issued out to them.


Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview in Wenchi, Alhaji Ahmed-Abdallah, a leading member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), was upset about the several shoddy and abandoned road works in the country, and said the bad and rough nature of roads contribute to road accidents in the country.


To minimize road crashes, the government ought to ensure that construction firms working on our roads, are encouraged to do excellent jobs, Alhaji Ahmed-Abdallah, a former Brong-Ahafo Regional Chairman of the NDC, said.


He explained that road construction is an area which requires a lot of money and machines, stressing that the Ministry of Roads and Highways ought to ensure that it followed laid down procedure in giving out categories of license to applicants.


Popularly known as “Alhaji PMC” Alhaji Ahmed-Abdallah noted that some roads and highways constructed in the 80s and 90s are still solid, because construction firms were billed to meet certain requirements before they were issued with licenses and awarded with those contracts.


In the 1980s, before a construction firm was issued with either license A2 or A1, a committee set up by government ought to investigate the firm and assess its strength and capabilities to ascertain whether the firm could do major road works, he said .

The renowned road contractor cited that in 1995, the then NDC government led by former President Jerry John Rawlings linked up with the Australian government, and contractors came down from Australia country to train local Ghanaian road contractors.


Alhaji Ahmed-Abadallah noted that such training was very useful to the contractors and beneficial to the nation, since it broadened the knowledge of the local contractors and introduced them to news areas of their jobs. He appealed to government to facilitate similar training programmes to empower road contractors to enable them do quality jobs.


Alhaji Ahmed-Abdallah urged government to set up an independent committee that would ensure the effective monitoring and supervision of road construction. He cited that because of the effective monitoring and supervision, the foreign company which worked on the Cape Coast-Takoradi road about 20 years ago, did excellent work as the road still remained solid as compared to other highways constructed few years ago.


On the appointment of road sector ministers, Alhaji Ahmed-Abdallah advised government to give priority and pick engineers in the sector who have worked at the Ministry for not less than 15 years.


When people who don’t have any idea in the road industry are picked as ministers, they have to take advice from engineers at the Ministry, starting from attachment and national service before gaining experience, and this will not take them less than one, he noted.