Sampsom Ahi
Parliamentary Select Committee on Works and Housing has asked the current Akufo-Addo administration to honour its debt obligations to Dredge Masters.
The MPs made the call yesterday when they paid a courtesy call on Dredge Masters in Accra, led by the Committee Chairman, Nana Amoakoh, to obtain first-hand information on the level of work done so far by the company to avert the perennial flooding in the capital city.
Dredge Masters is a subsidiary of Zoomlion Group of Companies in-charge of dredging major drains in Accra, including the Korle Lagoon and the Odaw River.
The company was first contracted in November 2015 to dredge the Odaw River which runs through a greater part of Accra, following the June 3, 2015 water-fire disaster, which shocked the country.
The first phase of the project to desilt 7.5 kilometre of drain channels that feed the Odaw River and the Korle Lagoon was completed in 2016 after its commencement in December 2015.
The contract for the second phase was reached between the state and Dredge Masters in June 2016, according to the vice chairman of the Select Committee, Sampson Ahi, who was addressing the media on the sidelines of the familiarization visit.
Payment was expected to be made in the last quarter of 2016 or latest by the first quarter of 2017 but that according to the vice chairman, had not been done and had therefore affected the company’s ability to tackle the non-dredging components of the contract.
“You will realize that the actual contract was signed in June 2016 and it took some time for them to mobilize to site and so actually you will realize that the actual payment had to start from the last quarter of 2016 or the first quarter of 2017,” Mr. Ahi said.
He added, “and you all know what happened in the last quarter of 2016, the election and all that. I am not blaming the government that they have not made payment. I am only appealing that we all admit that they have worked and when you work you must be paid so that you can continue work.”
The contract, he said, was binding on the government and so it must do everything possible to settle the debt.
The contract has different components and Mr Ahi indicated that with respect to the desilting, the company was almost 90 percent done with the work but the other non-dredging works had not been completed due to lack of funds.
He was of the opinion that if the company was paid it would be able to tackle the other components.
Interestingly, Mr. Ahi was a Deputy Minister of Works and Housing at the time the contract was signed in 2016 and until the National Democratic Congress (NDC) left power on January 7, 2017, he was not heard speaking about the payment of the debt owed Dredge Masters.
The central government had earlier expressed its preparedness to settle its financial obligations to Dredge Masters to enable it continue rendering services to the country.
Current Minister of Works and Housing, Samuel Atta Akyea, speaking at the commemoration of the June 3 disaster recently, said government would everything possible to clear all outstanding debts to the company and Zoomlion Ghana Limited.
“Companies are very commercial in character and without money, we don’t expect them to deliver. But Zoomlion and its subsidiary, Dredge masters, continue to work in the face of all these. So if there is any commendation, Dredge Masters and Zoomlion must be acknowledged for their services,” he said.
Mr. Atta Akyea added that “…The dredging of the Odaw River is capital intensive but even though these companies are owed huge sums, they still continue to work because of the human dimension they have attached to their work. It is in the light of this that they must be supported to continue giving us the services we need.”
By Melvin Tarlue