Don’t award contracts without budgetary allocation – Contractors tell government

Chairman of the Chamber of Construction Industries, Emmanuel Tetteh Martey has admonished governments to refrain from awarding contracts without making budgetary provisions for them.

According to him, the various infrastructural projects that have stalled in the country can be traced to contracts that were awarded without a specific fiscal provision made, noting they were done out of political expediency.

Mr. Tetteh Martey said this in an interview on Onua FM’s Ghana Dadwene show hosted by Michael Nana Yaw Opare where he noted many projects are usually awarded to their members during election time, for which reason they often do not come with proper preparation and allocations.

“In election time, the ruling government is brought under intense pressure to do infrastructural projects and that is so because they want to impress traditional rulers and electorate to score political points, hence, the haste to award contracts impetuously,” he noted.

He further said this makes various governments struggle to pay off contractors to either continue or complete projects whenever there is a change in government.

This practice he said hinders the progress of their work as industry players and want government to as a matter of urgency pay contractors in the country to help resuscitate their business and also pay off banks they are indebted to.

Mr. Tetteh Martey stated that the chamber has suggested and advised government on a number of occasions not to award contracts without making fiscal provision.