The Ghana Chamber of Construction Industry (GhCCI) is demanding a total of GH¢ 10 billion as debt arrears owed by government for various infrastructural development projects executed by its members.
They have therefore threatened to go to court if government failed to fulfill its financial obligation to the contractors to retrieve their monies.
The Chief Executive Officer of GhCCI, Mr Emmanuel Cherry, disclosed this at a news conference in Accra yesterday to brief the media about the outcome of the chamber’s 4th annual general conference held at Koforidua in the Eastern Region.
It was on the theme; “financing and funding methodology for infrastructure development: The case of GhCCI and delayed payments with associated interest and matters arising”.
According to Mr Cherry, the debt government owed the contractors had been in existence since 2016 adding “This does not include interest and other associated costs.”
“This debt includes roads fund, COCOBOD, consolidated fund as well as Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund). We’re even being charitable because if we should log all together with interest upon interest on delay payments, it will be more than that. So just imagine, government owing contractors such portfolios, you can imagine what it can do for the economic fibre of the country,” he added.
He stated that, the delay in payment had taken a toll on their businesses and causing most of its members to incur more debts on the loans they acquired in executing the projects.
“We’ve waited for too long and the time has come. We know government has tried but the approach is not the best so that’s the reasons why we are saying, the chamber together with the government through the Ministry of Finance will be calling for a stakeholder engagement.
“We have certain recommendations and solutions that we want to table and we believe if government should buy into that, it will help us all collectively to settle some of this course once and for all. But if it should drag, we have no other choice than to fight for the collective interest of our members,” he said.
Mr Cherry called on government through GETFund, Ghana Road Fund and Ghana Cocoa Board to make payment plan available to the contractors, consultants and suppliers for them to schedule project execution to reduce agitation and forestall negative perceptions of the principle of first come first paid method adopted.
He also called for lists to be made available to the GhCCI for transparency and good practices in payment management and monitoring.
The Chairman of GhCCI, Mr Emmanuel Tetteh Martey urged government through the Ministry of Roads and Highways to as a matter of urgency appoint a representative of the chamber to serve on the classification and Re-classification Committee.
He charged the government through the Minister of Finance to disclose the inflows from the E-levy and proportion that had gone into infrastructure Development since its inception and as a matter of urgency pass the new Ghana Building
Regulation which had been prepared by the Ministry of Works and Housing into law, to ensure standards was followed in the construction industry.
“We also entreat government to take a serious and exceptional view of the current ‘galamsey’ menace in Ghana which is having a toll on the infrastructural projects of the country and we will fully support government in it’s desire to bring it to an end using legitimate processes and systems,” Mr Tetteh Martey added.
BY VIVIAN ARTHUR
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