Six Contractors Demand Payment From MoH
Six contractors who were awarded contracts to build staff bungalows and CHPS centres in the Upper East Region for the Ghana Health Service have appealed to the Ministry of Health (MoH) to honour their contract certificates and reimburse funds due them. This, they said, would enable them complete the projects and also spare them the financial trauma they were experiencing due to the delay of the funds.
They are Mort Enterprise, Paaba Construction Works, Pops Way Enterprise and Atta Poku Enterprise, who were awarded contracts to build GHSs staff bungalows in Talensi-Nabdam district (Tongo), Kassena-Nankana district (Navrongo), Bawku Municipality, and Builsa district (Sandema), respectively.
The other two are Mahammoud Enterprise and Gamson Abu Construction Works working on CHPS centres in the Talensi-Nabdam district (Tongo) and the Garu-Tempane district, respectively.
The Managing Director of Mort Enterprise, Mr. Stanley Mort, on behalf of his colleagues made the appeal when The Chronicle, after a tour around infrastructural projects in some of the districts, traced the respective contractors to enquire why work on some of the projects, including the GHSs staff bungalows, had come to a halt.
According to him, the situation had virtually destroyed the rapport between they and their bankers, indicating that those who went for loans from banks had been embarrassed to the extent that some had even gone into hiding.
"Whilst the loans continue to accrue interest, those who used their own monies are now broke," he lamented. "In fact, they are stuck and cannot engage in any economic venture."
He stated that under normal circumstances, about 30% of the contract sum, technically known as the mobilization fund, had to be given to the contractors to start work on the project: but that was not done in this case.
Mr. Mort disclosed that the contract sum for each staff bungalow was ¢330,913,200.00, but could not give the exact sum for the CHPS centre projects, adding however that all the contractors had four calendar months from October 5, 2005 to complete their respective projects.
He called on the sector Minister, Major Courage Quarshigah (Rtd) to as urgently consider their plight and release the funds due them, based on the certificates they had submitted to the Ministry.
The paper gathered that apart from Gamson Abu Construction Works, who had completed and handed over their project, the rest had reached different stages and were awaiting the funds for completion.