Accra (Greatr Accra), 17 Mar.'99 -

The Department of Urban Roads (DUR) and the Contractors Association of Ghana, (CAG) on Wednesday praised the institution of the road fund saying it has been the backbone of their work. Mr George Godwin Brock, Acting Director of DUR, said the impact of the road fund on urban roads maintenance has been significant since its inception. Mr Twumasi Mensah, representative of the CAG, said "it has brought a significant improvement in our aggregate turnover." This was at separate meetings with a six-member Nigerian road sector delegation now on a two-day study tour of the country. The Nigerians intend establishing a road fund and are in Ghana to familiarise themselves with its impact on road building and maintenance. Mr Brock said through the road fund, "our maintenance budget has risen from one billion cedis in 1995 to 12 billion cedis this year." He said 8.5 billion cedis out of that amount is budgeted for routine maintenance and 3.5 billion for periodic maintenance. Mr Brock said since the DUR started benefiting from the road fund in 1997, it has received 44 billion cedis from the fund, out of which 1.7 billion was used on direct labour in cases of emergency. "The remaining 42.3 billion cedis was used in hiring private contractors to undertake maintenance jobs". He said through the road fund, DUR has been able to pave about 1,650 kilometres (km) of urban roads out of the 2,360 km in five cities under its jurisdiction. "The length of good roads has also increased from 600 km to 1,600km within the past two years," adding that there is still much work to be done since 800 km of paved and unpaved roads still remain poor and about 900 km fair. Mr Mensah told the Nigerian delegation that the CAG previously had a very weak financial base, but since the inception of the road fund, "our aggregate turnover now stands at about 180 billion cedis". He said the fund does not only support them directly "but also serves as a credible guarantor for us to receive loans from foreign financiers." Mr Mensah however deplored the situation where "big international contracts seem to remain the right of foreign companies and appealed to the government to give local contractors some political backing to win international contracts". He said foreign contractors indulge in the practice of sub- letting contracts to each other to ensure their survival over the local ones and suggested that local contractors work in partnerships to win bigger contracts. "We can also sub-let contracts to our weaker colleagues to ensure their survival and the survival of the association." The Nigerian delegation toured some major projects of DUR and those of the CAG members in Accra, Tema, Ashaiman and Sakomono. Otumba M. O. Adesina, leader of the Nigerian delegation, described their tour as an enriching one, saying "we have learnt a lot from your experience and we believe it would enrich our situation back home."