The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana COCOBOD Dr. Stephen Opuni has threatened to terminate the contracts of two contractors working on cocoa roads in some parts of the Ashanti and Central Regions within a month if they do not live up to expectation.
He gave the warning when he inspected ongoing cocoa roads on the Obuasi-Dunkwa-Ayanfuri stretch.
The Chief Executive who was joined by the Minister of Roads and Highways and some directors of the Roads Ministry first point of call was the Obuasi Junction to Kwamekrako in the Ashanti Region.
The 24 Kilometre stretch of road is being constructed by Messers Ussuya. The contract, which is valued at 59.8 million Ghana cedis was supposed to have been started in April of 2015. However the contractor came to site at the end of August last year after he had been given a warning letter by the COCOBOD who is financing the project.
According to the Regional Director of Highways, the contractor should have done 70 percent of works but has only done 48 percent. This did not go down well with the Chief Executive of COCOBOD and the Minister who described Ussuya as one of the best local contractors in the country.
Dr Stephen Opuni did not mince words to threaten termination of his contract.
He said the company will be given a third and final warning to work to 70 percent within one month or risk the contract being terminated.
The entourage also inspected the upgrade of the Eight kilometre Dunkwa-Ayanfuri road which is being undertaken by Messers Facol. Here the story was no different. The contractor Frank Acheampong had done only 10 percent of the expected works.
The Contract was awarded in December 2015 but the contractor according to Dr Opuni also delayed two months before moving to site after he has been warned. Dr Opuni said the era where contractors complained of not been paid is a thing of the past now as COCOBOD has supported the Ministry to duly and promptly paid the the contractors what is due them.
He stated that the roads are very strategic to COCOBOD with a view to the chunk of cocoa that is produced from that stretch of road
The Chief Executive however commended the two contractors for the quality of work done so far but urged them to do more or risk having their contracts terminated.
The Minister of Roads and Highways, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, who also expressed worry about the delay, explained that the Ministry does not delight in terminating contracts of Ghanaian contractors but some unduly delay projects given them.
He complained about the dusty nature of the road and asked the contractors to water the road periodically to give respite to residents and other road users.
However, the Chief Executive of COCOBOD promised to do a follow-up inspection of the roads after a month, to see improvement of works after the warning.
