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Rampant Building Collapses: A Reason why Ghana needs a Construction Industry Development Authority

Feature Article File Photo
AUG 25, 2016 LISTEN
File Photo

The call for the establishment of the Construction Industry Development Authority (CIDA) is not without cause. In the 21st century, infrastructure is the lifeblood of prosperity and economic confidence, globally. Successful delivery of well-planned infrastructure investments offers developing economies and for that matter Ghana, an opportunity to compete in the global marketplace. Construction is the mechanism through which infrastructure is delivered.

This evidence notwithstanding, the construction industry in Ghana is substantially underdeveloped and plague with numerous constraints. Economic development cannot therefore be achieved on the back of a fragile developmental framework and ill-equipped construction industry. In this article, I explore some of the major constraints and discuss current initiatives towards developing the construction industry in Ghana.

The collapse of buildings in the country in recent times has become very alarming, resulting in the killing of innocent people, infringing permanent disability on many and destroying properties. Between 2012 and 2016, Accra, the capital city of Ghana, officially recorded five major building collapse that claimed a total of 19 lives. The Melcom building collapse near Achimota in 2012 claimed 14 lives whereas the Grand View Hotel building collapse at Nii-Boi Town in 2014 recorded four deaths.

Two other buildings collapsed in 2014; the building near Akai House at Cantonments owned by the Export Development and Agricultural Investment Fund (EDAIF) claimed one life while the Central University hostel building collapse in Dawhenya recorded no death.Recently, there was another multi-storey building collapse in Cantonments that recorded three deaths. A recent one is collapse of an uncompleted building located between Holiday Inn and Marina Mall around Airport in Accra The building belongs to Empire Concrete but the contractors are Ferreira Building Power.

After the collapse of the Melcom building in 2012, a spokeswoman for Ghana's National Disaster Management Organization, Kate Adobaya, said structural weakness had caused the collapse, as reported by AP news agency. She was also quoted as saying that: "The foundation was not good enough”. Similarly, the Ghana Institution of Engineering Vice-President Magnus Quarshie told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme before a comprehensive investigations was carried out that: “looking at the debris, it shows workmanship was very, very poor….We can tell the concrete mix was not to the specifications we require".

Ghanaians have become so used to institutional inefficiencies that sadly, it seems stories of collapsed buildings, floods, fires in Ghana are no longer ‘news’ to us. A critical review of these buildings showed that almost all buildings that collapsed within this period were privately owned properties. In Ghana, almost all structural failures could be attributed to man-made phenomena. These man-made phenomena are very noticeable and the commonest in our construction industry that usually contribute to structural failure include lack of soil type investigation, poor building design and planning, use of inferior or sub-standard building materials, weak supervision, use of incompetent contractors, and lack of enforcement of building standards and codes.

Even before the collapse of these buildings, many construction industry captains, renown amongst, Mr. Rockson Dogbegah (Executive Chair of Berock Ventures Limited) and academics (Professor George Ofori, Dr. DeGraft Owusu-Manu et al) had on numerous occasions and platforms argued for the need for keen regulation and monitoring of the construction industry. As far back as 2009, Dr. Ahadzi of the KNUST, published an article recommending the need for a Construction Industry Development Agenda.

As the President of the Ghana Contractors Association, Rockson Dogbegah was captured by Citi Fm to have advised government to set up a construction industry development board to ensure that building projects are properly monitored. As far back as 2012, he as the Technical Committee Chairman of the Association of Building and Civil Engineering Contractors of Ghana, Rockson Dogbegah was reported to have said “the growth and development of the construction industry hinges on effective regulation.

His call came on the heels of an incident at the Sofoline Interchange project site in Kumasi, where three youth drowned in a deep, water-filled trench, dug by the contractors but without warning signs. Alluding to the death of the three, Mr. Dogbegah admonished the government to seriously consider the constitution of a regulatory body to enforce the adherence to health and safety provisions in the execution of contracts.

Under his leadership as the President of the Chartered Institute of Buiding (CIOB) – Ghana, Mr Rockson Dogbegah championed the commissioning of a team of consultants to study the construction industry and recommend possible ways to establish a Construction Industry Development Authority (CIDA). A Steering Committee made up of the Presidents of the Ghana Institution of Surveyors (GhIS), Ghana Institute of Architects (GIA), Ghana Institute of Planners (GIP), Ghana Contractors Association Council (GCAC), Ghana Institute of Technicians (GIT) and the Association of Building and Civil Engineering Contractors of Ghana (ABCECG) was set up by BUSAC to led the process towards establishing a central agency for the construction industry. A bill was designed out of the process and presented to the government and parliament to study and pass into law.

There is no better time than now to quicken the process of setting up a central regulatory body to manage the development of the construction industry. Similar challenges in other emerging countries resulted in the establishment of central agencies to coordinate the activities of all construction works. Interestingly, most of these countries are making very remarkable strides comparatively towards economic development. It is widely acknowledge that a strong construction industry, which is properly regulated by designated bodies, is a major stimulator of development in these countries.

For instance, Singapore, Malaysia and South Africa have the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB); Construction Industry Council (Hong Kong), Construction Industry Development Council (India), National Construction Services and Development Board (Indonesia) and the Institute for Construction Training and Development (Sri Lanka). Typically in Africa, countries like Zambia, Rwanda, Malawi, Kenya and Tanzania all have central bodies that are mainly responsible for the regulation and development of their construction industries.

Under its purview, the CIDA shall be responsible for the construction industry which may be defined: “as the part of the economy which plans, designs, builds, maintains, refurbishes, extends, and eventually demolishes buildings and items of infrastructure of all types”. The CIDA would be:

  1. championing and leading for the regulation and strategic development of the construction industry;
  2. advising the government on relevant aspects of the construction industry;
  3. formulating regulations, standards and codes to guide practice and procedure and nature of output in the construction industry;
  4. registering contractors and consultants, and enterprises linked to the construction industry, such as suppliers of materials, and monitor and control their performance;
  5. proposing guidelines and frameworks to help to streamline the work of, and promote good practice in, both public and private organisations involved in the construction industry;
  6. providing and administer incentive schemes to organisations to improve their performance;
  7. collecting, processing, maintaining and disseminating information that is crucial for activities in the construction industry;

This is another call on the government of Ghana and all stakeholders to increase efforts to strengthen the construction industry. Setting up the CIDA is a sine qua non and therefore cannot be overemphasized.

Kenneth A. Donkor-Hyiaman
Research Fellow, Property & Planning Institute of Technology (PPIT)

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