Reintroduce regional road maintenance units - Minister

Kulungugu (UE), Sep. 3, GNA - Mr Mark Woyongo, the Upper East Regional Minister, has underscored the need for the Ghana Highways Authority (GHA) to re-introduce the road maintenance units in all regional capitals.

He said the reintroduction of the units would ensure road maintenance works were regularly carried out. It would also extend the road lifespan and reduce expenditure on road contracts, he added. The Regional Minister made the call when he inspected on-going works on the Mesiga-Kulungugu road projects in the Bawku Municipality and the Garu township in the Garu-Tempane District. Mr Woyongo, who was accompanied by the Regional Director of GHA, Mr David Hammond and the Regional Engineer of Feeder Roads, Mr Lanquaye Wellington, warned that contractors, who did shoddy works, would be blacklisted from executing projects in the region. He said the situation where contractors deliberately delay projects with the hope that they would receive variations to top-up the cost would not be tolerated.

The Minister indicated that the Mesiga-Kulungugu road was very critical because it was a transit point to Burkina-Faso, Niger and Mali and said the country was losing a lot of revenue following the current state of the road.

He said when completed, the Mesiga-Kulungugu road was expected to generate a lot of revenue to country and therefore urged the contractor to speed-up and execute good job, adding "there should be value for money in executing contracts."

He asked the Regional Director of the GHA to exercise proper supervision and monitoring to ensure that the work was executed properly and indicated also that he would from time to time personally monitor the performance of contractors in the Region. Mr Philip Azumah, Director of Sugre Naba Venture Limited on the Mesiga-Kulungugu road attributed the delay to the floods that hit the Region in 2007 as well as the instability in Bawku.

In addition, he also cited the cost of raw materials such as chippings and the bureaucracy involved in raising certificates for money at each phase of the project.

The Regional Director of the GHA said the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), had pledged to reconstruct the Kulungugu Bridge to facilitate smooth movement of goods and services between Ghana and her neighbours.

He further disclosed that the rest of the Mesiga-Kulungugu road had been awarded on contract and work is expected to start soon.