Gov't to terminate all shoddy contract works

Wa, May 06, GNA - Mr Ambrose Dery, the Upper West Regional Minister, has reminded road contractors that the government would embark on an aggressive exercise to terminate all shoddy contracts in the region. He therefore advised them to engage the services of competent consultants and other key personnel in the road industry to provide quality jobs to avoid embarrassment through termination of their contracts.

Mr Dery said this when he addressed road contractors at the end of a three-day workshop at Wa that attracted 25 road contractors from all the districts of the Upper West Region. "The government will not tolerate shoddy work and will therefore not hesitate to terminate the contracts of contractors who do not live up to expectation".

He appealed to the business community in the region to consider establishing an equipment pool where the contractors could hire machines for their projects. The Regional Minister said t he Upper West Regional Council, in collaboration with the National Investment Bank, would soon establish a quarry that would provide chippings to help contractors execute their projects efficiently.

Mr Yussif Aboo-Bakr, the Regional Organizer of the Association of Road Contractors, appealed to the government to abolish the pre-tender tax because it was stifling the financial base of the contractors. "The pre-tender tax has thrown a lot of road contractors out of jobs since most of them even go to borrow to tender and when they loose they have to repay their debt."

Mr Aboo-Bakr therefore suggested to the government to deduct the tax from contractors who win their contracts after competitive bidding.