Upper West Region needs special financial injection – Minister
The Upper West Region needs special financial injection to scale up its development, especially in the area of roads construction, Dr. Ephraim Avea Nsoh, Minister of area has appealed.
Appealing to the Ministry of Roads and Highways for the needed support, he said: “This is the youngest region in Ghana and we need to specially nurse it to grow and contribute its quota to national economy”.
Dr. Nsoh reiterated an earlier promise to ensure that contractors implemented projects according to specification and on schedule for the people to benefit.
“Let nobody misconstrue my stand to mean victimization or witch-hunting anybody, it is quality work I cherish,” he explained when he inspected work on some ongoing urban road projects in the Wa Municipality.
The Regional Minister advised officials of the Urban Roads to do accurate report about the nature of roads under construction, the stage they had reached and the names of the construction firms executing the projects.
He said they should also come out with proposals on the priority roads so that government would find money for their timely implementation.
Some of the roads inspected included the HIPC road linking Odo Car Washing Bay and Douri low cost houses, access roads within Kpalsaka behind Wa Senior High School, the Sombo-Xavier link road, Social Security and National Insurance and the Wa Polytechnic link road, the Wa Polytechnic and SSNIT Guest House link road, access road opposite the Wa Technical Institute and the Radio Upper West-Dondoli road.
The Minister was not happy about works on some of the roads, which he said, were poorly done.
During the inspection no contractor was met on site, an indication that many of the projects had been abandoned due to financial challenges on the part of the contractors to continue work.
Dr. Nsoh said the roads were to make movement in the Municipality easy and wondered why contractors would not implement development projects in the communities on schedule.
He observed that many of the contractors had no capacity and yet they would do everything possible to get contract and delay the execution of the projects thereby hampering development.
He blamed officials of the Urban Roads, Department of Feeder Roads and the Ghana Highways Authority, for not playing their supervisory roles well to avoid shoddy works.
“Contractors do shoddy jobs and no action is taken against them. Supervisory should be strict, the finishing of our projects are so bad”, he said.
Dr. Nsoh suggested that the region would soon develop its own standards on development projects and any violation would attract demolition action.
He said mobilization of funds among contractors had been a challenge but also pointed out that some of the contractors’ hands were full and could not do any effective job.
The Regional Minister said there was therefore the need to redirect “our attention to other regions to bring in contractors who are more endowed and hardworking to come and support our development efforts”.
He said capacity assessment of contractors would be done to enhance quality job delivery.
At the Radio Upper West-Dondoli link Road, Dr. Nsoh and his team sighted a shallow well near a dustbin with surface water sipping down into the well, which the people depended on as the only source of their drinking water.
The Minister called for the immediate closure of the well and asked that a borehole be provided for them to save them from drinking from contaminated water source.
Source: GNA