Road Contractors appeal for removal of pre-tender tax

Wa, May 07, GNA - Members of the Association of Road Contractors in the Upper West Region have appealed to the sector minister to consider removing the pre-tender tax normally imposed on contractors during bidding.

They said the tax scared poor contractors to bid for jobs and raised doubts as to whether contracts were genuinely awarded to deserving contractors.

Mr Yussif Aboo-Bakr, the Regional Organizer of the association, said this at the end of a three-day workshop on pre-tendering, tendering and post-tendering that was organized for 25 of its members at Wa. He said road contractors pay pre-tender fees and this is not refundable even if they lose the bid and people who lost about two or three biddings were scared to go in again. Mr Aboo-Bakr pleaded that contractors who do not win contracts should at least have about half of the fees paid back to them "considering the fact that some members even go to borrow money for the bidding".

"We think that contractors who win the contracts should be made to pay the full tax since they stand to gain more than that at the end of the programme rather than those who loose". Mr Ambrose Dery, Upper West Regional Minister, commended them for organizing such workshops to sensitise members on the procedures of contract works.

He said the government was up to the task to terminate shoddy works. "Government will not tolerate shoddy works on any single contract given out and it is incumbent on you to educate your members to be up and doing to avoid that embarrassment of loosing their jobs." He said the Regional Coordinating Council, in collaboration with the National Investment Bank, would establish a quarry in the region.