Kpando handball project on hold

There is a delay in the construction of handball courts at the Kpando Sports Stadium as the local District Assembly has abrogated the contract with Andylar Ventures who were undertaking the project.

Mr Seth Asorwoe Akwensivie, Kpando District Chief Executive told GNA Sports on Wednesday that the assembly decided to award the contract to another contractor because of the poor quality of work which Andylar had done so far.

He said there were concerns all over the district about the pace and quality of the work and he was compelled to set up a committee of enquiry which report recommended that the project be taken from Andylar and re-awarded to another contractor who would do a better job.

The District Chief Executive said three contractors have been short listed for consideration and one of them would be given the green light to commence work in the first week of November.

The handball project was supposed to be completed about a year ago to facilitate the hosting of the national handball competition at Kpando, which has produced the cream of the national stars.

The District Assembly initiated the project and released 20,000,000 cedis to the contractor who started work but stayed action soon after, citing lack of funds.

Mr Edward Osei Kwaku, Minister of Youth and Sports visited the project site about four months ago and has since released 25 million cedis to the District Assembly towards the project.

Analysing the performance of Andylar, Mr Abbot Bansah, the District Engineer of the Public Works Department, consultants to the project said the contractor lacked qualified personnel to supervise the project and he failed to pre-finance the work as was stipulated in the contract.

He said though the contract was abrogated because the contractor could not deliver, "the poor surface would not be hacked off but topped up and smoothened to the required standard."

The district engineer said the work of Andylar was valued at 28 million cedis by the committee of enquiry and the Work Sub Committee of the assembly and the assembly would have to pay the contractor a balance of 10 million cedis as he had earlier received 18 million cedis.

Defending why Andylar should be paid extra 10 million cedis despite his shoddy work, Mr Bansah said Andylar had fixed frames and partitioned the walls of toilets and baths and had sunk a septic tank at the stadium.

He said the project, which was estimated at 170 million cedis at its inception has now shot up to 235 million cedis due to the delay in execution.