Some aggrieved contractors are threatening
to lock up about 766 public school facilities that they were contracted to
build if government does not make any frantic effort to pay them for their work
by June 26, 2019.
The contractors are also threatening to
embark on a demonstration across the regional capitals to make known their
concerns of unpaid arrears, some of which dates back to 2016.
To share their plight with the public,
coalition of associations that included the Association of Building and Civil
Engineering Contractors and the Association of Conscientious Public Sector
Contractors organised a joint press conference which was held in Accra on June
11, 2019
Acting as a spokesperson of the associations,
Mr Richard Nyarko said that contractors are not politicians and for that matter
should not be made to bear the brunt of change in government where some members
have been deprived of earnest living.
“We are not politicians; we are
Ghanaian business men and women who are doing honest work for a living. Our
hitherto happy and cohesive homes are falling apart. Our children are being
sacked from school for non payment of fees and our marriages are
collapsing” he said.
He also added that the delay in payment has
resulted in the piling up of debts that take the form of accruing interest on
overdue loans and financial obligations to state institutions such as the Ghana
Revenue Authority and the pension members
Mr Nyarko shared the precarious situation of
some members by saying that while some were being hounded by banks, others were
incapable of seeking medical care for conditions triggered by the debt crisis.
“Others, whose houses and properties
have been seized, have demented and prowling around like wraiths” he
added.
He also indicated that attempts to get
government to ease their plight have so far not yielded any result as the
associations have written letters of appeal to state institutions such as
Parliament, Council of State, Commission of Human Rights and Administrative
Justice (CHRAJ) and the Ministry of Education among others.
The coalition has therefore appealed to
government to desist from making pronouncements which go to suggest that they
have been paid as those statements only to go to mount unnecessary pressures
from debt collectors.
The group has also raised concern over the
manner in which certificates from contracts awarded in the current regime were
being honoured while some members do have unpaid certificates which dates back
to 2016.
According to them, the apparent stratification of the nation along party lines is inhumane and at variance with the president’s Mantra of being a president for all.
By Issah Mohammed
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