<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Ghana Chamber of Construction industry has stressed that the government\u2019s consistent delay in the payment of contractors is further worsening its debt position.<\/p>\n
According to the chamber, the non-payment by the government continues to attract penalties which balloon the amount owed.<\/p>\n
Chamber CEO, Emmanuel Cherry, stated \u201cif a contract is given, there are clauses in the contract that state that if you reach a certain percentage, you raise the certificate, that is interim payment certificate for it to be honoured.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the contractor raises the certificate, before, it used to be 28 days, but for now, it has being revised to 91 days for the road. With regards to building, it used to be 28 days, but it\u2019s now 45 days maximum. These are the periods mandated for the awarding agency to pay you. But here we are today, a contractor raises a certificate for 91 days. Still, the certificate has not been honoured,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithin 58 days in addition, if it\u2019s not being honoured, he has the contractual obligation to demand interest on that amount. So that also has a time span and if it also reaches, and it\u2019s not being honoured, he comes for another interest on that interest, so you realize that most at times, government awards a contract team of 20 million, which is being published,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut at the end of each commissioning, you realise that it\u2019s no longer 20 million. But either 30 million or 25 million, and then the media starts to raise questions as to why the contract is being bloated. It is because the government has defaulted on its path. It has not been able to pay on time, so interest upon interest has been slapped on that project.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Cherry also lamented the economic impact of the non-payment of contractors\u2019 monies, which in some cases are over 5 years in arrears.<\/p>\n
The Minister for Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako-Atta, in August 2021, announced a GH\u00a2800 million for the payment of works executed by road contractors however, contractors stressed that the amount was woefully inadequate.<\/p>\n
This comes at a time when the government is seeking an International Monetary Fund bailout programme due to its worrying debt levels.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 The Ghana Chamber of Construction industry has stressed that the government\u2019s consistent delay in the payment of contractors is further worsening its debt position. According to the chamber, the non-payment by the government continues to attract penalties which balloon the amount owed. Chamber CEO, Emmanuel Cherry, stated \u201cif a contract is given, there are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1148167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[3038,2508,3676,1713,1563],"class_list":["post-1148163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-chamber","tag-construction","tag-delay","tag-laments","tag-payments"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1148163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148163\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1148163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1148163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1148163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}