THE CENTRAL regional communications director of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Kwasi Dawood has tasked the Ghana Highway Authority and the Transport Minister to as a matter of urgency prosecute road contractors who delay on road construction after being paid.
Doing this, according to him, would serve as deterrent to lazy road contractors.
Mr. Dawood made this known to the media when he and his communication team visited Upper Denkyira East and West constituency as part of the monitoring of the biometric register exhibition exercise towards the impending November 7 presidential and parliamentary primaries.
The team also inspected President John Dramani Mahama’s on-going projects in the two constituencies where they found out that majority of feeder roads have been abandoned without any tangible reason.
Mr. Dawood expressed disappointment at places where majority of the road contractors deliberately were delaying the execution of projects.
He added that when this happens, the road contractors come in again for re-imbursement where additional money is taken from the coffers of the government through variation contract agreement which is a worry.
Mr. Dawood expressed disappointment about the abandoning of construction works on the Dunkwa-On-Offin-Buabenso-Kyekyewere feeder roads for three years by Kow Sam, Project Manager of K.B Annan, the construction company executing the project.
It was evident during the inspection that no substantive work had been done since the company received the drawings three years ago in spite of being funded by the government.
Mr. Dawood, therefore, humbly called on the sector Minister and the Central Regional Director of the Ghana Highway Authority to be up and doing to deal with lazy road contractors in order to meet the deadline of the contract given to them.
He bemoaned the deplorable condition of most of the road networks which remained untarred in Dunkwa-On-Offin making travelling unbearable for both drivers and commuters.
He was, however, impressed with the work on the construction of the Ayanfuri-Denkyira-Obuasi-Diaso-Asawinso durable road and commended President John Mahama for fulfilling his promises given to the chiefs and people of Upper Denkyira West.
This road, according to him, has never been tarred since independence, but under the President Mahama administration the road has now been constructed.
Meanwhile, the DAILY HERITAGEin an interview with some residents of Dunkwa-On-Offin said the condition of the road networks has been their major concern since it was impacting negatively on the transportation of agricultural produce with significant post-harvest losses as well as other economic activities.
Commuters, especially, those from Cape Coast and other areas who cannot endure the bumpy ride on the road due to its deplorable state, especially, during the rainy season have no option than to use the long distance of Obuasi road in the Ashanti Region.
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