Experienced Civil Engineering expert, Abdulai Mahama has suggested the government withholds a percentage of payments made to road contractors upon their completion of road projects.
With what he calls the “Liability Period Policy”, he says if these roads go into a deplorable state within a specified time period because of the contractors’ poor quality of work, their (contractors) balance should not be paid to them.
He admitted that a multiplicity of factors lead to deplorable road conditions in the country with a major focus on the poor quality in the execution of some road contracts.
“Road construction is expensive and I plead with the authorities to put in place a defect liability period policy for the roads we construct. The gov’t should withhold portions of the fees charged by road contractors when they complete a project. If these roads are destroyed within a 1 to 3 year period and investigations prove the premature destruction was because of the contractor’s poor work quality, then the balance should not be paid to them”, he said.
On his authority it is quite surprisingly that two different contractors will undertake different projects, source materials from the same supplier only for one’s work to last longer than the others.
To him, contractors who do shoddy jobs should also be blacklisted from undertaking any projects in the country by the authorities.
“The authorities should blacklist contractors and consultants who poorly undertake road contracts. How can two companies use the same raw materials, buy from the same place and one’s road project lasts way longer than the other. What is the problem then and why do such people still receive contracts?
In an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show aired on e.TV Ghana and Happy98.9FM, Ing Mahama revealed the Minister of Roads and Highways reiterated his above stance but is surprised that has not been rolled out yet.
He added that the poor maintenance of our roads also leads also attributes to their short lifespan. “If you don’t maintain a road within a specific time period, it will just deteriorate further even if you fix it later on”.
By: Joel Sanco