The Construction and Building Materials Workers Union (CBMWU) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) is advocating the institution of a construction industry board to regulate the activities of contractors and builders in the country.
The union explained that such a board would harmonise all activities and also help to attain a high level of sanity in the building and construction industry.
Speaking to the GRAPHIC BUSINESS on February 18, the General Secretary of the Union, Mr Pius Quainoo, said players in the industry were all working as individual entities and that did not augur well for the development of the industry.
“Right now as it is, everyone is doing his own thing in the industry. If you take even for instance the various ministries, all of them are developing their structures without a central system regulating it. For the past 10 years we have been advocating a construction industry development board so that the industry could be sanitised,” he said.
Mr Quainoo said “Our proposal was that all major stakeholders, including government, to be represented by the sector ministry, the contractors association, the engineers institute, the architects board, and all major players in the industry should be represented on the board. They are there but each of them is doing its own thing, so we are asking if they can operate as a system because it is working in other countries.”
He said, “We have problems even between roads and highways, water resources and works and housing and all of them are doing infrastructure. Currently it is centralised in the hands of government and that makes it lack consistency. But if we have an independent construction and development board, then we can have consistency. And that could be another way that we can go around the issue of having a national policy for the country.”
SSNIT payment as a challenge
In Ghana, employers are expected to make a 13.5 per cent contribution to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) every month on behalf of their employees while the employee is expected to contribute 5.5 per cent.
Mr Quainoo, however, explained that most employers in the sector did not pay the mandatory SSNIT contributions for their employees.
“One of our challenges has been that employers who don’t want to pay SSNIT contributions of workers try to convince the workers that they can pay them more money whereas SSNIT contribution is saving for the future,” he said, adding that “This is because the employer needs to make some contributions for the worker, so if you say you don’t want it, it is in their favour.”
The union, he said, had been educating its members on the need for employers to pay the SSNIT contributions of their staff, explaining that: “We try to get the workers to understand that, in the short term, yes, you are getting some money
but in the long term, the job is not there and the employer is not with you”.
“The law is also on our side that every employer is supposed to pay, so employers who are very deviant and refuse to pay, we just take them through the law process,” he explained.
Sector performance over the years
Activities in the construction and building sector have slowed down over the years due to the failure of the government to release funds earmarked for the sector.
“Last year it was very bad, even though there was budget for our expenditure, the money never came, that’s how come you see a lot of construction projects stalled in the country. The government couldn’t pay contractors regularly, and some of them decided that if they were not paid then they would not work again.”
He said in 2015, provision had been made for the sector but as to whether it would come on time was another issue.
“We are in February and this is the dry season, so if you are doing construction work and you don’t start it now, and you are waiting for the rainy season, what work can you do. Most of the materials we use can be badly affected by water and that is what quite happens, the releases come late, they come at the wrong time and not much can be done,” he said.
Mr Quainoo said probably this year would be better because 2016 was an election year, adding: “I don’t know whether the 2016 elections would pave way for funds to be released to the construction sector in 2015”.