Western Region calls for early completion of projects

The chief executives said  the situation was creating a lot of problems and disturbing  their budgets as the assemblies had to construct improvised structures to ease the plight of the children.

They said  this in a communiqué read after a two-day end-of-year review meeting by  the chief executives to discuss the state of the region and how to improve its  performance.

The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Aowin, Mr Oscar Ofori Larbi, who read  the communique on behalf of his colleagues, said the abandoned projects  were mostly uncompleted GETFund-funded six-unit classroom projects, additional classrooms  and dormitories for senior high schools in the region. 

The situation, he said, had resulted in  crowded scenes in classrooms at basic and senior high schools and that did not create the perfect ambiance for effective teaching and learning. 

He said the DCEs appreciated the government’s efforts to provide infrastructure for schools in the region.

“We are, however, worried over the existence of a large number of uncompleted or abandoned school blocks scattered all over the region, thereby denying children access to quality education as envisioned by the President,” he said.

The DCEs attributed the situation to the non-payment of contractors by the GETFund secretariat to enable them to continue the projects.

The situation, he said, was making things difficult for the MMDCEs in the region and that something must be done about it.

He said,  “we renew our commitments as operatives at the district level to work hard to ensure that in collaboration with the GETFund and the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) solutions are found to the challenges.” 

The DCE said it was  the hope of his colleagues that through the collaboration, the uncompleted projects would be completed for communities with inadequate school infrastructure.

That, he said, would improve teaching and learning and also ensure that any school shift system practised in any district in the region  would be abolished.

Also in the nine-page communique, the MMDCEs said they were further disturbed by the unacceptable degradation of the forest and the pollution of the water bodies in the region

He said the chief executives had also noted that the region accounted for the bulk of the nation’s cocoa but had challenges with its evacuation, and  called for more attention to be paid to the roads.

They called on the sector ministry to compel the  contractor on the Enchi – Dadieso road  to move to site to resume work to ensure the completion  of the project on schedule.

 “Urgent efforts must be made to ensure that the Benchema Junction – Osei Kojokrom road is awarded on contract to ease the difficulty in reaching the two Bia districts,” they said.