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Report by Nana POKU
The Contractors Association of Ghana has called on the government to pay them their accumulated arrears or face industrial action soon.
Speaking to the media in Accra the contractors intoned that from 2017 to date the government has failed to fulfill its debt obligation to them thus putting them in complete disarray.
“Since 2017 the government has refused to pay for the services we have rendered in the road and housing sectors running into several millions of Ghana cedis. As a result some of our members have died, fallen ill, divorced, and disengaged. The GRA is on our necks, SSNIT is chasing us as well as the banks are seizing our properties to defray the loans we took for the projects,” they said.
They stated that even though the president could not put down the actual figure of indebtedness, he indicated that the ministries of Road and Highways and Education via GET FUND owe them so much crossing the 200,000,000 Ghc mark.
He also did not also say whether the government has paid some of the debt or not at all. However, he told the journalists that if by two weeks time government via the sector ministries have not met their request they may resort to strike or court action to force the government to listen to them.
The president of the group Mr Prosper Eledi painted a sad picture of his members who can’t sleep or eat well as a result of their worrying conditions.
“We all embraced the Free SHS and bought into it to enable the state realize a major adorable dream but as l speak, the GETFUND Secretariat has not been forthcoming with our monies even though our certificates have been approved for payments,” he said.
“We wiped out our accounts, borrowed from the banks, friends, wives and relatives to enthusiastically embark on GETFUND projects but they have not paid us and we are suffering,” he moaned.
The president said what pains them most is the fact that the sectors concerned claims they have not finished the jobs but on the contrary some of the facilities are being used by government officials, worse still they have certified document of jobs completion.
“The saddest aspect of it is that the outstanding bills cannot attract interest especially with the depreciation of the Cedi in the face of the current economic hardship . We are therefore appealing to the government and the agencies owing us to listen to this appeal and do the needful to take us out of our current predicament. And if by 27 the September we don’t hear from the agencies involved, we may be compelled to do the odd thing,” he said.
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