Unregistered foreign contractors must be dealt with — ABCECG

The leadership of the building contractors association has bemoaned the practice where some foreign contractors have refused to register with any association in Ghana in blatant disregard for the rules of engagement.

According to the leadership, many foreign contractors came into the country and were aided to win contracts without going through the mandatory registration process. 

Such practices, the executives argue was discriminatory and disadvantages foreign contractors that were law abiding and were registered with the various associations.

The President of the Association of Building and Civil Engineering Contractors of Ghana (ABCECG), Mr Prosper Yao Ledi, complained about the activities of these foreign contractors in an interview in Accra.

 Mr Ledi said the refusal of some foreign construction firms to register with the various associations, allowed them to get in and out of the country at will and in many instances without the requisite compensation for their workers.

Mr Ledi alleged that there were influential Ghanaians who facilitate the entry of these contractors into the country and shield them from following due process.

 “Registered foreign construction firms feel cheated by the activities of the unscrupulous ones. It is unacceptable for one foreign construction company to be law abiding while others sneak into the country, get big deals and sneak out,” Mr Ledi lamented.

The ABCECG President said this if not checked, could lead to total indiscipline within the construction industry, and urged the new Minister of Works and Housing, Francis Assenso Boakye to as a matter of urgency, address the challenge.

“These unregistered foreign construction firms employ our people, they do not go by any bargaining agreement, pay them what they want and when the job is done, they just pack and leave them to their fate, it’s so unfair,” he said.

Mr Ledi also urged the government to extensively consult them on its intended programmes and policies before they were formulated.

He bemoaned situations where government takes decisions that eventually impact on them without getting them involved.

Mr Ledi