Road projects not job for the boys — Goaso chief
Road projects must not be awarded as job for the boys, but on merit to competent contractors who have the capacity to deliver high-quality roads, the Omanhene of Goaso Traditional Area, Nana Kwasi Baffour Bosomprah has said.
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"Projects must not be awarded to people just because they are members of the National Democratic Congress and must be rewarded", he stated and added, “We want our roads to be awarded to competent contractors. If they award our projects to an incompetent contractor, we will sack him".
Nana Bosomprah was interacting with the Minister of Roads and Highways, Alhaji Amin Amidu Sulemana and his team of technical men who were inspecting roads in the Brong Ahafo and Upper West regions.
Nana Bosomprah said he was very happy about the minister's visit as it had enabled him to have first-hand knowledge of the poor conditions of roads in the town.
He blamed the maintenance team of the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) in the town, whom he accused of not working hard enough.
According to the Omanhene, the GHA had huge trucks in the town but they were doing nothing to rehabilitate the town’s deplorable roads.
"We will not say much because he has seen the roads. Huge trucks for road construction have been parked here but we don't see anything", he stressed.
Goaso is located in the Asunafo North Municipal Assembly in the Brong Ahafo Region and agriculture is the major driving force of the district economy, employing about 64 per cent of the potential labour force in the district.
Among the major agricultural activities are: Agro-based industries which offer employment to about 44.5 per cent of the agricultural sub-sector, oil palm extraction, cassava processing, soap-making, akpeteshie distilling and pockets of cashew processing.
Goaso, like other towns in the region, also produces timber, cocoa and gold, hence it is in dire need of good roads which will speedily help in the transportation of these commodities to other regions in the country.
" Recently we have even discovered more gold", the Omanhene stated, explaining that it was one of the reasons why they needed good roads.
He however expressed appreciation to the Department of Urban Roads (DUR) for making them feel part of Ghana because of the good work they had been doing in the town.
He also commended Alhaji Sulemana for taking time to see the conditions of the roads and not sitting in his office as other ministers of state do.
Alhaji Sulemana gave the assurance that road contracts would be awarded on merit. " We will not share them like groundnuts. We will ensure that contractors have the competence to deliver quality roads so we obtain value for money".
He also said the visit had been very useful as it had enabled him to see the challenges on the ground.
He added that the ministry was going to do its best to improve the road network in the town and ensure that the contractors already working on the Tepa-Bechem road expedite work on the project.
Story: Naa Lamiley Bentil
