The Akufo-Addo government owes a whopping Ghc10 billion (almost US$ 2 billion) to road contractors to whom the state had contracted for dozens of road projects across the country.
This disturbing revelation was made by Emmanuel Cherry, the chief executive officer of the Chamber of Road Contractors.
“The delay and failure of government to pay back contractors in due time is hurting the industry. Many of our members have accrued bad debt and subsequently gotten auctioned. We also have key projects pending, loss of jobs and many of our members have gone bankrupts,” he told Accra-based GHOne Business chat.
According to him, because most contractors borrowed the monies from banks to pre-finance the contracts, there has been a knock-on effect on the banks as well. Affected banks have since increased their non-performing loans.
The government claims to be trying its best to pay back contractors however, the problem is seen to be the result of vindictive politics.
In 2017, the Akufo-Addo government came into office, it started a campaign of vilification and discredit against the predecessor Mahama government, as part of which road contracts awarded by the Mahama government were halted across the country for a so-called assessment.
It took some three years of stalling after that. While the road contractors were left hanging.
Eventually, the fact that the refusal of the Akufo Addo administration to pay these beleaguered contractors was confirmed by the disgraced former President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Kwesi Nyantakyi.
Kwasi Nyantakyi was exposed in an undercover stint by renowned Ghanaians investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas. In his famous Number 12 undercover documentary, Nyantakyi was secretly recorded saying the Akufo Addo administration was determined to ensure that the “NDC contractors” will never be paid. “As for those NDC contractors, their money will rot,” Nyantakyi said.
Consequently, the monies due the contractors stalled, with the government later announcing plans to pay the contractors who were willing to forego interest payments on monies owed them.
Even that arrangement has not resulted in settlements as Mr. Emmanuel Cherry reveals.
He said the information is that the government now intends to pay. “The government committed to pay interest payment certificates of between 0 to 1 million cedis. There is also communication that 1 million and above certificates payments will commence next week.”
Source :whatsupnewsghana.com
