Institute of Surveyors president Sulemana calls for digital transformation in infrastructure payment

President of the Ghana Institute of Surveyors (GhIS), Alhaji Sulemana Mahama is calling for an efficient payment system for infrastructural projects.

According to him, this will help deal with stalled or abandoned projects in the country.

The president was speaking at the opening of the 2023 Quantity Surveying Annual Divisional Seminar in the Eastern Region.

Over the years, the country has witnessed an unacceptably high number of stalled or abandoned infrastructure projects in the country. this is attributed to inadequate budgeting, delayed payment, and lack of funding processing amongst others.

The opening of the 2023 Quantity Surveying Annual Divisional Seminar was held in the Eastern Region. It was to interrogate the new contract amendment bill and understand the economic environment of infrastructure delivery in the country by exploring the debt restructuring arrangements and its implications and limitations.

The President of the Ghana Institute of Surveyors, Surveyor Alhaji Sulemana Daud Mahama said the current regime of for payment of project delivery is challenging.

“The current regime creates a difficulty for everybody in the sense that, quite a lot of the processes in the payment institutes are paper-based so it slows down things. Sometimes, very serious mistakes are made and you have to go back and compute all that manually and the rest. So, it wastes everybody’s time.”

He stressed the need for an effective payment system.
“What we think is that if all these processes can digitalize, it is actually operated digitally it helps to reduce even human influences and corruption in the payment system,” he added.



Speaking as the special guest at the event, the Omanhene of New Juaben Traditional Area, Daasebre Kweku Boateng III, called on the government to digitize the infrastructure delivery in the country to properly regulate the payment regime of the sector.

“Government should consider adopting digital platforms and technologies to streamline payment processes. The use of electronic invoices, online payment systems, and automated fund transfer, significantly reduce the administrative burden, minimize manual errors, and expedite the payment cycle. Furthermore, the use of digital platforms enables real-time tracking and reporting enhancing transparency and accountability,” Daasebre Kweku Boateng III said.



Also, the Eastern Regional Minister, Seth Kwame Acheampong, in his statement at the event said the government is working on modernizing the current payment regime.

The 2023 Quantity Surveying Annual Divisional Seminar of the Ghana Institute of Surveyors (GhIS) was themed “Payment Regime and its Impact on the Successful Delivery of Government Infrastructure Projects”.