Friday 14th March , 2014 10:23 am
Rockson Dogbegah
The President of the Ghana Contractors Association, Mr. Rockson Dogbegah has advised government to set up a construction industry development board to ensure that building projects are properly monitored.
Speaking on Eyewitness News, Mr. Dogbegah stated that the board will also ensure that contractors as well as people undertaking constructions are qualified to do so.
The move, according to him, will help reduce the increasing spate at which buildings collapse in Ghana.
An uncompleted hotel structure collapsed at Nii Boi Town on Thursday morning.
Two people were confirmed to be trapped under the rubble of the hotel building.
Giving updates on the disaster, Citi FM’s Rabiu Alhassan stated that NADMO had suspended their operations at the site.
“NADMO has indicated that they will continue the removal of the debris on Friday morning,” he stated.
He also stated that the AMA had confirmed that just two people were trapped in the building.
Speaking to Citi News, the Director of NADMO, Mr. Kofi Portuphy stated that the exercise had been very successful adding that “expect the gratitude of the nation to the men and women of the various agencies that assembled here to undertake this emergency operation exercise.”
Commenting on the disaster, Mr. Dogbegah stated that government and stakeholders must embrace a “strategic solution” to bring the situation to a halt.
Using other countries as a frame of reference, he stated that it was imperative for Ghana to also have a construction industry development board that sees to ensuring that contractors and tradesmen are certified to work.
“A lot of people pretend that they are contractors or trades people or designers and because our systems are weak, the system is not able to pick on some of these people so they just do what they want and go away,” he lamented.
The Deputy Minister of Water resources, Works and Housing, Sampson Ahi also stated that there “was a form of negligence on the part of the AMA as well as the owner of the building that resulted in the collapse.”
By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana