Appiatse: 'Get your acts together, your brick laying skills need improvement' – Contractors told

The Appiatse Reconstruction Implementation Team (ARIT) on Thursday, 8th December 2022 paid a working visit to Appiatse to among others hold an emergency meeting with contractors of the various construction companies working on the Appiatse Reconstruction project.

Chairing the meeting on behalf of Mr Benito Owusu-Bio, the Chairman of ARIT and Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr. Hermans Blankson a member of the ARIT Committee and Ghana Institute of Architects, indicated that his most pressing concern has to do with the overall work being done properly and meeting the set targets.

He noted that the quality of construction that is seen on site needs to improved, therefore charging the consultants to do a better job in supervising the reconstruction adequately to minimise mistakes or better, avoid them completely.

Speaking on the outlook of bricks laying, Mr. Hermans urged the contractors to get a better understanding of the methodology to ensure that the bricks are layed perfectly. "You need to get it absolutely right from the very beginning because from where I stand your brick laying skills needs more room for improvement so get your acts together," he told them.

He on the other hand, instructed the consultants to request for the number of bricks needed by each contractor and ensure that those producing bricks speed up work to meet up demand for supply. "This is crucial to us so as a matter of urgency get a supply matrix for the brick supply and get us real figures as soon as the end of the day".

"In terms of supervision you need to ensure that the bricks are well dried and cured before contractors use them to build. Regardless of the fact that we need to finish on schedule, we also need to do a good and quality work," he added.

Mr. Blankson Hermans underscored the importance of the role of urban roads to the beauty of construction on site, urging them to bring their expertise to bare by helping finely demarcate and cut out the road margin to give the site a better look.

He reiterated the Chairman's comment on payment, requesting the consultants to ensure that contractors present their payment certificates every month before payments are made and in situations where contractors fail to raise the certificate, he asked that they put it into writing for proper documentation of every transaction and for accountability.

Mr. Walter Semordzie, the site manager with the Project Consultant, AESL gave a progress summary on the overall work output on site, stating target projections for delivery and the actual work output by the various contractors.

He updated the house saying on the whole, 32.1% work has been done on site since project commencement on 5th September 2022, and giving the one-year time frame, all contractors are supposed to finish work by 5th June 2023.

He also gave an overview on the individual works of various contractors, pointing out those meeting up the target and those trailing behind but noted that on the whole, 90% of the total plots are currently being developed.

Mr. Castro Kaliebu, the brick Engineer on site from Rural Housing Department gave a quick update on bricks moulding, explaining that they have so far produced and supplied a good number of bricks to the contractors but have recently slowed down due to a sudden decrease in their staff strength.

He, however, assured the chairman that before the supply matrix is made available, they would have increased in number as he has requested for workers from Accra to join him on site.

Each contractor present was given an opportunity to update the house on their work, explaining why their trailing behind or making progess and also to ask questions and add their contributions.

The contractors concurred that their main challenge on the job is the Brick supply and some financial constraints. They complained that the supply is not as quick as they expected which is delaying the development of the superstructure of the buildings and pleaded with ARIT to fast-track the payment process.

The meeting saw a good representation of contractors from all the 6 construction companies on site; Builders.com , McCastro Company Ltd, Savannah Grande Ltd, MegaTech Plus Engineering Solutions Limited, MackSams Company Limited and Finness Company Limited.

Source: Classfmonline.com