SOME CONTRACTORS in the country are calling on government to modify the current terms of payment for GetFund contracts from a first come first served basis to more proportionate payments.

The contractors who claim their payment certificates have not been honoured by the Ghana Education Trust Fund Secretariat for almost two years due to the current payment system are making an urgent appeal to government to intervene to save the situation.

GetFund was established by an Act of Parliament in 2000 (Act 581) with the objective of providing additional funding to supplement the provision of infrastructure and other essential services for the education sector at all levels by government.

The contractors maintain that since they submitted their payment certificates almost two years ago, they have not received any payment for work done due to the current payment system and long queues at the secretariat.

According to the contractors, the accountants at the secretariat claim there is no funding so they have to use the little money they have to pay contractors based on who submitted their certificates first.

One of the distressed contractors who wished to remain anonymous told the paper “what is very disheartening is that we do not know the number of contractors who have submitted their certificates and those of us who first submitted their certificates and are waiting to be paid.”

“We do not know whether the accountants are just hiding behind our ignorance to delay the payment or whether they are trying to please some ministers who are in government and are competing with us for contracts. Some of us are not staying in Accra and always have to travel long distances without knowing whether we will receive the payment or not.”

They lamented that the banks keep chasing them over loan repayments and the cost of borrowing keeps increasing daily.

According to the contractors, since there is no clear format for payments they cannot be sure when their certificates would be honoured in the midst of current widespread economic hardship.

They are proposing that the available funds be shared or distributed proportionately to cover every contractor who has submitted his or her certificate for payment.

Efforts to get a response from the Getfund Secretariat about the issue were unsuccessful.