Shady Deals At Adomi Bridge

The secrecy surrounding the award of refurbishment works of the Adomi Bridge which is costing the nation billions of cedis has been one of the major concerns of the people of Atimpoku, Akosombo and its surrounding towns.

On paper Ussuya is said to be the contractor working on the project but information doing the rounds indicate that some top man at the Ghana Highways Authority might have taken the contract for himself and was hiding under Ussuya's name. It is on record that for about four months at the initial stage of the refurbishment works, when the workers were hired to work on the bridge, they never set their eyes on the contractor.

Mr. Dagadu who is Director of Bridges at Ghana Highways Authority (GHA) and Akrong Mensah, the site foreman, performed almost all the duties of the contractor including the fixing of wages for the workers until Chronicle's publication about suspicion among the workers that the GHA director was the contractor for the project,Dagadu then ceased frequenting the site.

When Chronicle contacted Dagadu last Friday afternoon, he denied any link with the contract and said his involvement in some affairs of the contract was because of his schedule as Director of Bridges under whose purview the contract fell. "In order to establish the authenticity of the allegations that I took the contract for myself and was hiding under Ussuya, the management of GHA recently set up a probe to investigate the allegation and I was found innocent", Dagadu told Chronicle.

However, when Chronicle contacted the Financial Ccontroller of Ussuya Company, Mr. Albert, to comment on the issue, he was furious and questioned what authority Chronicle had to question him about the non-payment of the workers and other issues involving the execution of the contract.

Chronicle's investigations into the on-going refurbishment works indicates that the contractor has reneged on his contractual agreement with the government. He has, therefore, resorted to what the workers termed as shoddy work at the expense of the state, Chronicle can reveal. Under the contract agreement with Ghana Highway Authority (GHA), the contractor was expected to use prima undercoat (anti rust), but surprisingly part of the Bridge had been painted without prima. Chronicle gathered that upon instructions by Akrong Mensah, the workers were told to paint the Bridge without prima.

About two months ago, the Eastern Regional Highways director who was there to inspect the work warned the fore-man to ensure that the nation gets value for money but the warning seems to have fallen on deaf ears since nothing has changed for the better. "Instead of prima undercoat of anti rust (galvatroid) they painted some places once with only the finishing silver paint," Chronicle heard.

Currently the work on the bridge has come to a halt following the misunderstanding between the workers and the contractor over the poor execution of the project and the delay in payment of the workers for some time now, Chronicle has gathered. Another issue that has heightened the tension between the workers and the contractor, according to Chronicle sources, is the death of Nii Okai, 28, one of the workers about three weeks ago. Nii Okai fell and got drowned while helping the foreman, Mensah to fix some wawa boards.

They have, therefore, appealed to the government to probe the rehabilitation work of Adomi Bridge and to also find out who actually won the bid to execute the project to lay the suspicion that has clouded the refurbishment of the bridge to rest. They have also called for a probe into the circumstance that led to the death of Nii Okai who drowned on February 25, 2000.

Their decision stemmed from the fact that the workers have several times agitated for safety equipment such as Safety belts, Life jackets and proper insurance cover but the contractor woefully failed to provide these equipment.