Unpaid contractors run to Otumfuo for intervention

Contractors who are owed by the government in various sectors have taken their demand for payment a notch further by petitioning the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II to intervene, MyNewsGh.com reports.

Consequently, a meeting has been scheduled on Wednesday, August 14 at the Manhyia Palace where the contractors would meet the Ashanti King, MyNewsGh.com has confirmed.

A circular sighted by MyNewsGh.com, inviting “all contractors owed by the Government of Ghana”, entreats all contractors to “try to be at the meeting as it would serve as a viable platform and tool for the success of our struggle for the future of our business”.

Contractors in the country have in recent times voiced out their frustrations over government’s refusal to pay them for work done.

In July, some aggrieved contractors stormed the Ministry of Roads and Highways to demand the immediate payment for works executed for the government, but their effort would not yield any fruits.

It took the police to avert any unforeseen circumstance, preached for calmness while protecting the main entrance of the ministry building.

The Ministry of Roads and Highways has however not been forthcoming with explanations on why it has taken so long to pay the hundreds of contractors.

Some of them say they have lost hope in the government and have had cause to predict its return to opposition should the trend continues unabated.

Founder of the Progressive Contractors Association, Akoa Kofi Owusu Achiaw in an interview with Angel News last week attributed the deaths of some twenty-contractors since this government came into office to “non-payment”.

According to him, the posturing, utterances and general attitude of the appointees of this government are injurious to the chances of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to staying in power.

This followed a recent rant by the Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah that contractors who feel they are unable to independently source funds to complete government projects to forfeit them to their counterparts who may be willing to do so.

The minister in an interview on Kumasi-based Angel FM last week condemned government for being indebted to contractors and charged it to by all means possible, find money to settle the age-old debts, but chastised contractors for using the situation as a yardstick to stifle government projects.