UK Company to help distressed contractors in the Volta region

A Company from the United Kingdom has offered to support distressed contractors in the Volta region to complete their projects, Ms Helen Adjoa Ntosoo Regional Minister has hinted.

She, therefore, asked the contractors to furnish her office with details concerning their outstanding contracts promising to secure favourable terms for them.

Ms Ntosoo was addressing a general meeting of the regional branch of the Association of Building and Civil Engineering Contractors of Ghana (ABCECG) in Ho on Thursday.

She admonished the contractors to act with fairness and be sincere to ensure a mutually beneficial outcome from the initiative.

Ms Ntosoo commended the ABCECG for forming a consortium to pull resources to bid for major projects in the region and promised to work with that body.

She assured contractors in the region that their certificates would not spend more than a day on her desk and appealed to them to bear with government as it worked to overcome the challenges confronting the country.

Ms Ntosoo urged contractors in the region to unite and present a common front towards strengthening the industry in the region.

Mr. Prosper Ledi, Chairman of the regional branch of the ABCECG, presented a litany of challenges facing contractors in general and Volta region in particular.

He said there was no hope for local contractors if government continued to delay in paying contractors for work done.

Mr. Ledi said the preference for foreign contractors over local contractors in award of major contracts “seems to be on the edge of crowding out local contractors from the sector.”

He admonished government to insulate “the procurement process from political interferences to ensure efficiency in the construction industry.”

Mr. Ledi pledged the cooperation and support of the Association to the government in its quest to develop the region’s infrastructure.