Some contractors in the country have bemoaned delays on the part of government in paying for work done.
According to them, the situation puts contractors in a difficult position that erodes all their gains as banks impose penalty payments on those who default.
Speaking to Citi Business News on the issue, the Managing Director of construction firm, Berock Ventures Limited, Rockson Dogbegah stated that local contractors are unable to speak due to fear of being victimized.
“Some contracts have a provision in the contract to compensate you for the delay, but unfortunately it is not respected, most clients are not willing to go by that and worst of it is that the contractors, local contractors are not able to enforce their rights, and reason is that they fear for being victimized,” he lamented.
“It’s horrible; in that case you cannot perform effectively as a contractor, because you don’t have access to finance in order to become attractive. Your suppliers, your creditors, and all of those people, you become unattractive to them. So it puts you not in good position to grow your business,” he added.
Mr. Dogbegah explained that the situation is made worse with difficulties in accessing cheap loans as cost of interest rates is very high.
“That is how bad it is. At the end of the day you work but the banks take all the money in the form of interest and unfortunately there is no interest on delay payment for some of the government contract and where the provision is made in the contract, it is not respected by [some of] the clients,” he said.
He was of the view that the challenges have caused the local construction industry to suffer, lagging behind international firms.
He observed that the industry has the potential move Ghana’s economy forward if the needed attention is given to it.
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