Yaw Osafo Maafo
Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo, has accused engineers, surveyors and planners of being partly responsible for Ghana’s 60-year-old infrastructural deficit.
Mr. Osafo Maafo disclosed this while speaking on Friday in Accra at a day’s symposium organized Let’s Go Africa Foundation, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) in partnership with local institutions, including the Ghana Institute of Planners, Ghana Institution of Engineers, Ghana Institution of Surveyors, a Development group, Jede Associates, on the country’s infrastructural development and other professionals.
The conference examined the major and minor infrastructure projects and priorities of the government with general development risks, including liabilities in land acquisition, project management and contracting and how risk mitigation and innovative financing mechanism can navigate expected risks.
It also looked at how the private sector can partner government in developing the country’s infrastructural sector through a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.
“We, professionals, are involved seriously in the infrastructural deficit we have in this country,” the Senior Minister, who is himself an engineer, bluntly told a group of engineers, surveyors and planners, who took part in the symposium held at the Ghana Institute of Engineers (GhIE).
Speaking under the theme for the occasion, “Innovative Infrastructure Development, Financing and Poverty Alleviation in Ghana Conference,” the Minister stated emphatically that engineers in the country cannot continue to blame politicians alone with regards to why the country still faces infrastructural challenges 60 years after independence.
According to him, most decisions on undertaking infrastructural projects in the country are made by engineers, thus they cannot turn round to blame politicians when such projects end up to be shoddily constructed.
“Who designs the roads? Engineers; who supervises construction? Engineers, who writes contract specifications for tender? Engineers, who takes measurements and evaluates the work in terms of value,? Engineers,” he quizzed, indicating that engineers, surveyors and planners take 95 percent of decisions on infrastructural projects while politicians are only responsible for granting approval for payment.
Unacceptable Standard
Mr. Osafo Maafo complained bitterly about the quality of roads in the country, adding that “it is a fact that the rate at which our roads deteriorate is internationally not acceptable.”
According to him, an asphalt road internationally has a lifespan of 25 years, but the case of Ghana is different.
He said that roads asphalted in Ghana by persons, who call themselves senior engineers, surveyors and planners, do not last long.
The Senior Minister urged engineers, planners and surveyors, as well as other stakeholders “to think outside the box” to address the challenges facing the state.
He said the private sector should support government in developing the sector, calling for alternative sources of funding for the country’s infrastructural projects.
“We must as planners not look at government as the main source of revenue for the infrastructure development, we must find alternative sources of funding, he said.
Deputy Minister of Works and Housing, Eugene Boakye Antwi, in a keynote address, underscored that the country was currently facing “monumental challenges in infrastructure development, which is proving to be a constraint on growth and development.”
“To address the infrastructure gap and poverty alleviation, however, Ghana requires contributions and investments from Ghanaians, Africans and the rest of the world,” he said.
A recent study conducted by the World Bank at the request of the Ministry of Finance on behalf of the Government of Ghana to address the country’s infrastructure deficit, reportedly revealed that the country required sustained spending of at least $1.5 billion per annum over the next decade to bridge the infrastructure gap that exists currently.
By Melvin Tarlue & Memunatu Abubakari