Aviation Minister suspends payment to Wa Airport contractor

Mrs Cecilia Abena Dapaah, Minister of Aviation, has questioned the integrity of work being done on the Wa Airport and asked that payment of cheques be suspended.

Shoddy work has been detected at the apron (parking space for aircrafts) and some facilities at the main office block warranting the suspension of payment of cheques until quality work was delivered.

“We want value for money work delivery. We will not allow any contractor to short-change the taxpayer. Quality work is our goal”, she said.

Skill Link Limited is the company carrying out work on the Wa Airport and the apron and some facilities at the main office block had some defects and needed to be corrected. 

Mrs Dapaah issued the directive when she inspected constructional works at the Wa Airport during a day’s working visit to the Upper West Region to take a look at facilities at the airport and ascertain what was needed to be done to make the airport serviceable.

She said it is the intention of government to support local contractors by giving them such contracts and expected nothing less from them than quality work delivery.

The Aviation Minister also asked the Ghana Airport Company to consider the extension of the runway at the airport to facilitate the landing of bigger aircrafts while efforts were also made to seal the underground tunnel which water was passing through with iron bars.

“We cannot invest in a facility and allow it to go waste. The Wa Airport has no fire station and we cannot comprise with safety”, she said.

The land for the airport was acquired by government but compensation has not been paid to the land owners and this has resulted in the sale of some parts of the land to private developers who have encroached on the land.

Source: GNA