Kpando Assembly Gets Tough On Contractor

Kpando,(Volta Region) 1, Oct. The Kpando District Assembly has given a two-week ultimatum to its executive committee to recommend an appropriate action against a contractor who has abandoned two market projects worth about 793 million cedis. Lieutenant-Colonel N.K. Kpikpitse, an assembly member, moved at the fourth general meeting of the assembly that the contractor, Mr Ben Edzi, Managing Director, Benwall Construction Limited, should not be allowed to hold the Assembly hostage by persistently refusing to appear before it to explain issues pertaining to the completion of the projects. The Assembly, presided over by Mr L.K. Debor, directed that its executive committee should re-examine the contract documents, the mode of payment and the quantum of work done based on a letter the contractor wrote to the assembly on September 23, this year. About 60 per cent of work on the first project at the Kpando market, which includes the building of 28 markets stores at 369 million cedis, started about 14 months ago and should have been handed over long ago. The contractor, while working on the first contract, was again awarded the second one which involved the building of market stalls and a warehouse at a cost of 324 million cedis at the same Kpando market, under the Agricultural Sector Investment Project (ASIP). The two contracts were awarded by the district tender board under the chairmanship of the then district chief executive Madam Akua Boatemaa Boateng. Miss Akua Dansua, Kpando District Chief Executive in her maiden sessional address yesterday said the market, at its present stage, was creating an inconvenience to the market women because half of the original market was fenced leaving a small space for trading activities. She said the assembly realised only two million cedis, instead of the projected 57 million cedis for the first half of the year from the market. Miss Dansua said her administration would resist ''unnecessary pressures'' put on the administration to side-step laid down contract procedures. She announced that 626 million cedis was allocated to the Assembly as part of its share of the common fund in addition to 56 million cedis being interest earned on the fund for the two previous years. She said the assembly is constructing a 108 million- cedi access road to the landing stage being built at Kpando-Torkor by the Volta River Authority at an undisclosed cost. Miss Dansua mentioned several projects which are being undertaken and those to be pursued in the district especially ''the possibility of tapping water from the Volta Lake as a permanent solution to the water problem of Kpando and its surrounding areas''. She appealed to the assembly members to accept the re- introduction of the Value Added Tax as ''the surest way to increase revenue to meet the ever increasing developmental needs of the nation''.