Unpaid local contractor optimistic of getting paid

A local contractor Hussein Yushaw Fuzak, CEO of Fuzak Company Ltd., has expressed optimism that the government will soon pay all contractors being owed.

His optimism follows an announcement to parliament by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta about two weeks ago that processes are being gone through to pay the contractors.

“We are very optimistic that we will get our monies,” he told Moro Awudu on Class91.3FM’s Executive Breakfast Show on Tuesday, 8 August.

Meanwhile, Mr Fuzak has also expressed disagreement with a comment made by Minister of Works and Housing, Samuel Atta-Akyea that the government preferred giving contracts to foreigners to locals since the latter are only interested in cutting corners to make money, and, thus, do shoddy works.

Mr Atta-Akyea made the comments at the Engineering Council as part of a one-day working tour, where he acknowledged the need for local content and Ghanaian involvement in key projects.

He said unlike local contractors, who, in his estimation, were preoccupied with making money, foreign contractors always ensure that they build high quality projects as a way of cementing their legacy, “because they have distinguished themselves.”

“…There is a problem. If you hire Ghanaian engineers, they wouldn’t want to do the work right. They cut corners, they inflate figures.” “For the engineer, who is outside, it is a legacy, so that your name is permanently written… but for the Ghanaian engineer, it’s not like that. He is trying to look at situations to make good money and leaving us a shoddy job,” the minister added.

But Mr Fuzak said: “I disagree with the minister totally, we as Ghanaians have the responsibility to build Ghana because if the Minster is undermining his own people then the spirit of the 1957 independence is seriously undermined.

“What they are giving to the foreign consultants, if they give 25 per cent of that to local contractors, I’m telling you that the output that we will put out will be far better than that of the foreign companies or consultants.

“You can’t just give preference to somebody and deprive your people and use all manner of words against them. Every country is being built by its own nationals,” he said.

In his estimation, the government “should learn to motivate our people for us to build a better Ghana”, rather than pushing all the contracts to foreigners to enrich their countries.

Mr Fuzak insisted that foreign contractors “don’t do a better job than local contractors.”