The Upper East Regional Stephen Yakubu in a recent working visit to the Builsa South District expressed disappointment over the level of work done under the government’s Agenda 111 hospital project which is under construction.
The Agenda 111 hospital project in the Builsa South District was awarded for construction earlier this year but when the regional Minister paid a visit to the site, the project was still at the foundation level.
Engineers at the site explained that they have been confronted with technical challenges. These include the nature of the land the hospital is supposed to be sited on.
The DCE for the area, Daniel Kwame Gariba explained, in a recent interview with A1 Radio’s Mark Smith that the government could not be blamed for the delays in the project.
“Government has given you [the contractor] a contract, given you money to go and start the project and for many months after the project has been handed over to you, money given to you, the project is at a very deplorable state. The contractor is at fault.”
“He should know that the President is in a haste to make sure that these projects come up. How can the one in Garu can move at that pace and yet the one in Builsa South, the one in Chiana-Paga and Bolga East are moving at a snail’s pace.”
Mr. Gariba explained that while as DCEs, they are supervising the construction of the projects, “there are limits to which you can supervise.”
The DCE later admitted however that the contractor had complained of some initial challenges.
“When you talk to the contractor, he’s blaming the consultant. When you talk to the consultant, he’s blaming the contractor. You don’t really know where the problem is. Just last week, I warned the contractor that we would be forced to write to the President for the contract to be terminated. One of the funny reasons he was giving is that the prices of things have increased.”
The DCE however disagreed with the contractor’s excuse about price increment in building commodities; an excuse Mr. Gariba doesn’t find tenable because “this is a dollar rated contract.”
“That excuse that the prices have gone up is a lazy excuse that any contractor can give and we are very serious about this. We will not sit down and someone will pick government money and want to use it for some other things.”
Meanwhile, the Agenda 111 project in the Garu District is 50 percent complete. This is according to the DCE for the area, Osman Musah.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
