Cautious optimism greets third contractor for LEKMA road

Fury and frustration is giving way to cautious optimism in the Teshie community in Accra where construction work has began on a deplorable 7.5km LEKMA road.

JoyNews’ Maxwell Agbagba who spoke to president of the Teshie residents association Emmanuel Mettle-Nunoo said “I hope this is not going to be a nine-day wonder”. He recalled how several agitations against the government and the NPP MP Dr. Bernard Oko Boye to have the road fixed.

”We residents of Teshie are going to monitor and make sure the road is done to its completion”, he told the reporter at the site where heaps of gravel had been dumped along the dusty road.

But he exercised no caution in praising the Multimedia Group Ltd for a sustained campaign highlighting the plight of residents there.

“All glory will go to Multimedia and the residents of Teshie” he said. 

Audio: Teshie Residents Association express resolve to monitor contractor’s work

Ing. Abdulai Mahama in an interview on Joy FM Super Morning Show, where the campaign began, said government should be given the benefit of the doubt.

The new contractor was selected by the government and Dubai-based company M/S DSR Holding Inc which is sourcing for funds for the construction. The contractor is the third in four years after Malin Investment Ltd started work in June 2015 and later M/S Hajaig Construction in September 2018.

Abdulai Mahama said the delays in paying the first contractor caused the failure to complete the Teshie project within the stipulated 24 months.

While the contractor had sunk some ¢25m into the construction, government was paying back piecemeal.

A government statement showed the contractor was paid in four tranches over 18 months, some as little as ¢4m. The contractor and government are now in talks for an out-of-court settlement after the company sued for wrongful termination of contract.

Ing. Abdulai Mahama explained that after 91 days of work, contractors would usually raise a bill for government to pay in order that the work can continue.

When this payments delay, the government by the terms of the contract pays interest on the outstanding amount and also on the equipment that are now idle.

Photo: Portion of the 7.5km road became the subject of a #FixLekmaNow campaign began on the Joy FM Super Morning Show last week

When the contract is terminated, government often has to settle the contractor, he said. In effect, government ends up paying so much more than the initially budgeted for the project.

“Before we say jack, we are paying quadruple the amount of money involved in that project. I have witnessed a project in this country which is about 10 years running. It is even scary” he said.

According to the engineer, the Teshie road project now costs ¢90m when the initial cost in 2015 was ¢62.2m. If government had paid up promptly, money would have been saved on the road project, he said.

From the perspective of commuters, drivers would have saved money from the recurring cost of replacing parts of their cars. Residents who have been reporting respiratory infections at the LEKMA hospital would have also saved time and money.

Ing. Abdulai Mahama said the delays in paying contractors such as was the case of the first contractor is not an exception but the rule when a project is funded by the government.

“You can count 1001 Government of Ghana jobs which have been abandoned”, he said.

Video: Ing. Abdulai Mahama spoke on the Joy FM Super Morning Show

Abdulai Mahama said contractors for donor funded projects hardly face hiccups in payment and expects that the LEKMA road would keep to this script as it is to be funded by the Development Bank of Belarus and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) .

The engineer expressed frustration, government for political expediency award several projects even if it cannot fund it, creating frustrations for the contractor and the expected beneficiaries of the project.

He wants government to be truthful to Ghanaians by focussing and funding on a few projects at a time to ensure there are no delays. “If the government…can do about five projects at a time, so be it” he said.

Mahama also wants politicians to take the back stage in the process of awarding and supervising infrastructural projects and allow professionals within the ministries to do their work.