Queiroz Galvao MI, the Brazilian contractor working on the Bolgatanga-Bawku-Pulmakom Road in the Upper East Region has packed out of the site.
When A1 Radio’s News team visited portions of the road where the contractor worked, Friday, February 10, 2023, it was clear that the contractor had packed all the firm’s equipment and left the site.
Though the Upper East Regional Road and Highways Directorate is yet to comment on the matter, a deep-throat source who spoke to Moses Apiah explained that the contractor’s abrupt leave could be attributed to the inability of the government to disburse monies for work to continue.
Speaking on the Day Break Upper East Show today, the Upper East Regional Communications Officer for the NDC, Jonathan Abdallah Salifu said that to make the situation even worse, about 400 workers attached to the project have been laid off.
Mr. Abdallah expressed some disquiet about the economic implications of the move.
“The money is not coming, that is why the contractor has withdrawn. I am saying that it is not time yet but I would forward to you, redundancy letters issued to these workers. As we speak, over 400 young men and women have been made unemployed within a twinkle of an eye because the contract has come to a halt. They are paying them their redundancy packages. If you are not folding up, you won’t pay workers redundancy packages,” he claimed.
According to Mr. Abdallah Salifu, “it is high time, as I said, for us to fight for what is due us. Yesterday, I went on Facebook and saw the Deputy Minister for Lands [George Mireku Duker], sharing on his facebook about a massive road project that is currently ongoing in his constituency. So the question I ask myself, are there projects ongoing? Why [the halt] on the Bolga Bawku road?” he quizzed.
He cautioned that the people of the Upper East Region would not allow the government to toy with issues concerning road development in the region.
“We are not going to take very kindly to it. We are not. This is a project that we have all been yearning for. Whether we like it or not, when a project starts, it must finish. We shouldn’t encourage projects being abandoned halfway again,” he said.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
