BLACKLISTING CONTRACTORS (MARCH 27, 2010)

THE Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Mr Alban Bagbin, has announced that all contractors, engineers and consultants who certify and get paid for shoddy jobs at the expense of the taxpayer are to be blacklisted.
He said the move had become necessary following the realisation that some firms undertook projects which became non-functional after completion.
This decision sounds like a familiar signature tune but as a new minister, the Daily Graphic wants to support the minister in this Herculean task to make sure that the taxpayer has value for money.
Every year, the state loses huge sums of money through the execution of shoddy works by contractors, but who is to blame? The Daily Graphic has said time and again that we seem to be groping largely because we have refused to play by the rules.
Any regular traveller on our roads will notice gaping potholes even on newly constructed roads on which the government has spent millions of cedis. What this means is that some people are not doing the work for which they are being paid. For, if those in charge of our public works, including the bureaucrats and technocrats, are up to their task, contractors who execute shoddy works will not be paid.
We know that a certain amount of the contract sum is always held up by the executing agency until after a certain period following the certification of the job by the consultants, the engineers and the agency that awarded the contract. But it appears that these procedures are not being followed hence the refusal of contractors to do the right thing.
There is also the canker of kickbacks affecting the efficiency and quality of the construction industry. This is an issue which is always denied by players in the industry, but it is making it increasingly difficult for the taxpayer to benefit from the sweat of his/her labour.
Another vexed question that must be asked following the minister’s directive is what happens to officials involved in the execution of shoddy works after they have been blacklisted?
If the regulations are not yet in place, then we would appeal to the minister to move quickly to put in adequate sanctions for public officials and contractors who collude to execute shoddy work.
Although the minister has spent only a few weeks in the ministry, he must be aware by now that his ministry deals with very powerful personalities and institutions in the country and he needs to develop a tough skin to face up to some of the negative things that are destroying our economy.
The Daily Graphic will throw its weight behind the minister in this national assignment to have value for money. However, we want to serve notice that our journalists will be knocking at the door of the minister to find out how effectively he has carried out this assignment so that we can open a new chapter in the management of public funds in the country.
We remind technocrats and bureaucrats who are offered opportunity to serve our society to do so more diligently so that our collective efforts will yield the right dividends.
The Daily Graphic is aware of the economic challenges facing our country, but if the people we entrust with the management of the public purse use the resources more judiciously the “better Ghana agenda” will materialise pretty soon.