Politics of Thursday, 18 April 2013
Source: GNA
Mr Isaac Adjei Mensah, Deputy Minister-designate for Ministry of Roads and Highways on Wednesday suggested the scrutiny of the credentials of road contractors to ensure that competent people and entities carry out contracts.
This, he said, would sanitise the system and ensure that Ghana gets value for the money it spends roads.
He said consultants who certify the shoddy works of contractors should be sanctioned.
“If we want to engage people who we spend money to construct roads, then, we need to get qualified ones,” he said when he was vetted by the Appointments Committee of Parliament in Accra.
Isaac Adjei Mensah said there is the utmost need to ensure that the country’s roads are in top condition to facilitate trade and agriculture to improve the lot of Ghanaians as envisaged in the Better Ghana Agenda.
He said government should improve the capacity of local road contractors to international standards to enable them execute major projects being awarded to foreign firms.
“If we are able to build the capacity of our local contractors, they will be in the position to take some of these major contracts,” he added.
Mr Mensah who is the Member of Parliament Wassa East in the Western Region, advocated the decentralisation of the Road Fund to enable all regions and districts to benefit from the facility to upgrade their roads.
He said he would contrive ways of shoring up finances, including private sector participation, to enable the Ministry construct new roads and improve existing ones without recourse to the Road Fund.
When he took his turn, Baba Jamal Mohammed Ahmed, Deputy Minister-designate for the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development said it is perilous for political parties to garner support from private entities because of the influence that individuals could have in the decisions of such parties when they assumed the reins of government.
John Alexander Ackon, Deputy Minister-designate for the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Traditional Affairs, said he would champion the need for chiefs to refrain from engaging in active politics because of their role in the cohesion of the society.
“Chiefs play important roles in the development of the country but if we allow them to go into partisan politics, they cannot focus on development,” he said.
Mr Ackon said he would support traditional leaders to create museums to tell the story of their areas.
The Committee also vetted the Deputy Minister designate of Employment and Labour Relations, Antwi Boasiako-Sekyere, and the Deputy Minister-designate for Tourism, Culture and Creative Art, Mrs Dzifa Gomashie.