Contractors engaged in shoddy works on the Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesion (SOCO) project will be sanctioned, the Upper East Regional Minister, Stephen Yakubu has warned.
He said all contractors who were yet to mobilise construction materials to site after the projects had been awarded on contract over two or three months before would have their contracts abrogated, and re-awarded to serious contractors.
The minister who made this known during a monitoring tour to the project sites in Tempane and Garu districts of the Upper East Region, over the weekend, said the execution of the projects in the various districts were meant to add value to the local economy and improve upon the living standards of the people.
He gave a stern warning that any contractor who engaged in snail’s pace and poor execution of the projects would not be spared this year.
In an interview with journalists after he inspected the progress of work on a toilet facility at Tempane, the minister expressed distraught with the slow execution of the project, and asked the District Assembly to give the contractor a warning letter.
Mr Yakubu capped his criticism with a touchline reprimand to the contractor, stating “the contractor has to stop this shoddy work or risk losing his job. I am instructing the planner here to give him a warning letter for the poor work.”
The contractor of the toilet apart from mobilising materials to the project site late, also defied the specification of using six inches for the construction of the project.
At the Tuafaukuam community at Woriyanga, a suburb of Tempane, the minister and his entourage inspected the execution of a 3×3 shell culvert, and hailed the contractor over what he described as impeccable quality of work.
In his observation, he said he was hopeful the project would be executed and completed within the stipulated time frame, as the community had been yearning for its expeditious prosecution to link the area with communities in the nearing country, Togo.
According to him, the Woriyanga community was economically viable, and the construction of bridge project would help facilitate smooth business transactions among community folks.
“Similar physical sub-projects under the SOCO facility, such as school infrastructure, renovation of Basyonde Meat shop and others are going on in the district,” the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Tempane, Mr AnabidaIssaka, has said in an exclusive interview with the Ghanaian Times earlier.
The Tuafaukuam bridge, he added, collapsed seven years before, and the rehabilitation of the project would serve as a relief to the folks.
On his part, the Regional Engineer for the SOCO project, Danladi Salifu, disclosed about GH¢1 million had been released to the various districts and municipalities in the region to undertake physical projects in the second phase of the SOCO project.
FROM FRANCIS DABRE DABANG, TEMPANE
