From now onwards, stakeholders in the road construction value chain, including contractors, consultants and staff of agencies under the Ministry of Roads and Highways, who renege on their responsibilities leading to shoddy works would be held responsible, the sector Minister, Governs Kwame Agbodza, has warned.
“We are no longer going to tolerate any shoddy work under any circumstances,” Mr Agbodza, MP, Adaklu, told journalists at the Government Accountability Series at the Presidency in Accra yesterday.
He was emphatic that henceforth, contractors who win bids to execute any works under his outfit must show “competence and commitment” to do the work and do it well.
Upon assuming office early this year, Kwame Agbodza said his team has observed a worrying trend which makes holding duty bearers responsible a difficult job.
“For instance, we noticed at the ministry that contractors get work and when they are asked to buy performance bond, they go to an entity and without any due diligence, given cover believing that government would never come back to cash the bond if things go wrong.
“Let me sound this warning. From now, when you are a contractor and you finish your work and it fails without explanation, we shall cash the bond and use same to restore the road.
“If you are a consultant, before you get any work from the ministry of roads and highways from now, you need to buy professional indemnity insurance because if you supervise any work that fails without explanation, we’ll draw down on your insurance cover to make sure we cover the damages that have been caused,” he stated.
To staff of agencies under the ministry, the minister warned that if they supervised any work and authorise payment for same and defects are detected within a specific period of time, “you’ll be surcharged” for professional negligence.
Mr Agbodza said the trend where roads deteriorate before their lifespan, sometimes immediately after construction, was worrying and government takes serious view of it.
“Ensuring value for money is the way to go and that is the only way we can restore some sanity and decency as we improve the quality of work.”
To protect the integrity of the roads after all conditions have been met, Mr Agbodza said the penalty for axle load was set to be hiked from GH¢5,000 to GH¢50,000 as a way to deter truck drivers from overloading.
Giving update on the ‘Big Push’ initiative, a US$10 billion accelerated infrastructural to drive job creation and prioritise the completion of uncompleted and abandoned critical infrastructural projects across all sectors, Mr Agbodza said 50 road projects across all 16 regions have been earmarked for this year.
For example, he said the construction of a 1.6 km bridge over River Oti at Dambai is scheduled to commence in three weeks with works on stalled projects like Kasoa-Winneba; Ofankor-Nsawam; Takoradi-Agona Junction, Suame Interchange and upgrade of Tumu – Chuchuliga – Navrongo, Navrongo – Chuchuliga-Sandema, Tepa-Goaso; Hohoe – Jasikan; Nkwanta – Oti Damanko; Adenta-Dodowa, Jinijini-Sampa amongst others are all set to commence.
He explained that the ‘Big Push’ initiative is not a constituency specific programme but designed to interconnect regions and cities to unlock their economic potentials.
On the stalled Ofankor-Nsawam project which has become the nerve of a major gridlock linking Accra and Kumasi, Kwame Agbodza said government has made over GH¢300 million payment to the contractors from the US$70 million owed it and expects work to be expedited to ease congestion on that stretch of road.
With Cabinet having approved the reintroduction of road tolls, Mr Agbodza said 12 firms have submitted bids for consideration to operate the electronic tolls.
Plans, he said, were also in place for the maintenance of existing roads with the passage of the Road Maintenance Trust Fund Bill, assuring that disbursement formulae would be determined by Parliament to ensure that every district benefited.
He said with a commitment of over GH¢123.5 billion in the road sector, government would gradually execute the projects, assuring that “there will be no political consideration in the construction of roads. What we want is a good road network to aid the movement of goods and people”.
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
