President John Dramani Mahama has assured that Ghanaian contractors will lead the implementation of his government’s ambitious Big Push infrastructure programme.
Launching the initiative at Afienya in the Greater Accra Region on Tuesday, September 16, President Mahama said a rigorous vetting process had been completed to ensure that only contractors with the required competence and capacity were selected.
“We have gone through a very rigorous procedure to choose the contractors who will work on the Big Push project. That is because we believe quality and speed are important. We have assessed all the contractors and looked at their capacity,” he said.
The President emphasized that quality and durability will not be compromised. He noted that the strength of road projects depends heavily on proper groundwork, not shortcuts.
“The quality of roads is dependent on how compact the soil is. If you compact it well and you put the bitumen on it, the road will last forever. But in some places, contractors are in a hurry, so they just work on the surface while the base is left loose. When heavy trucks move on such roads, they begin to sink. We do not want that in the Big Push,” he explained.
Highlighting the government’s priority on local expertise, President Mahama revealed that the majority of selected contractors are Ghanaian firms.
“The majority of the contractors selected for the Big Push are Ghanaians, because we believe in building the capacity of our own contractors. Several of them have the same capacity as foreign contractors,” he said.
However, he clarified that foreign contractors with pre-existing contracts before his administration takes office would not be sidelined but instead integrated into the programme.
“We have not terminated those contracts. What we have done is to repackage them and add them to the Big Push so that we can continue and complete them quickly,” he explained.
The government has earmarked GH¢13.85 billion (US$892.9 million) for the Big Push programme, which includes 42 major road projects across the country.
source: almightyfm
