General News of Wednesday, 13 June 2018
Source: XYZ
2018-06-13
Stephen Attatsi, Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the Contractors Association if Ghana
The Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the Contractors Association of Ghana, Mr. Stephen Attatsi, has revealed that the failure of Government to release funds to defray its debt owed them is making it difficult for them to get loans to continue their projects.
Speaking to Host of the Morning Xpress on Radio XYZ, Neil Armstrong-Mortagbe, the Chief Executive Officer of Supreme Bird Investments Limited said the situation is “alarming” and making their businesses “dormant”.
He revealed that work done have not been paid for in the last two years, a situation which he said was not only crippling their businesses but creating a bad relationship between them and their banks.
“The commercial banks or the regular banks, these days don’t want to see a contractor’s face at all because of the payment trend,” he said.
Touching on their plight, he said the delay in releasing funds to them results in them incurring losses stemming from high interest rates, penalties from banks and hikes in the prices of construction materials.
He went on to say if the Government finally pays them and the bank charges and penalties are deducted from the funds, it makes some of his members fall ill.
“Anytime they [government] pays, some of my neighbours lose their lives simply because when the [bank] statement is given to them, some of them get mild stroke…When they get paid, they go to the bank and the bank takes all the money,” he noted as he appealed to government to resort to securing bonds to pay them.
To him, Government should channel the Road funds to the maintenance of roads and not to pay contractors for the construction of new roads to help them support the government at all times.