Dogbegah
The government has been commended for holding the National Policy Summit aimed at providing government Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) a platform to articulate policies and programmes to targeted stakeholders as well as the general public.
Mr Rockson Dogbegah, Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) Construction Sector Chair & Vice President, Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), Africa in an interview with Times Business said after holding the successful summit, follow ups must be carried out to inure to the elimination of all the bottlenecks impeding the development and growth of the private sector.
“It is my hope that the policies on infrastructure development would encompass the growth and development of contractors. As there should be a deliberate attempt to develop the capacity of our local construction industry for a sustainable infrastructural growth of the country,” he said.
Mr Dogbegah said there was the need for some comprehensive transformational policies to reform the construction sector.
Key among such policies he suggested would be the need to have a strong regulatory body such as a Construction Industry Development Authority (CIDA) to champion the growth and development of the entire construction industry.
The proposed CIDA he said would see to the regulation, competitiveness and development of the construction industry by specifically executing the following; accreditation and registration of contractors, certification of skilled construction workers, site supervisors etc, Promotion of quality assurance, stimulation of the development, improvement and expansion of the construction industry, Review and co-ordination of training programmes among others.
On other interventions needed for the construction sector to thrive, Mr Dogbegah said there was the need for the country to have a Delayed Payment Act to ensure prompt payment to contractors.
The Act he said was needed especially for local contractors to thrive and keep their businesses in these economically challenging times.
“With this Delayed Payment Act, it will become an offence not to pay a contractor on time. Oblivious to many, when clients default in making payments on time, invariably, the contractor’s capacity is destroyed. This is because the contractors are also unable to pay back loans from banks in due time, making them unattractive and the construction industry rated as a very high risk industry,” he said.
He cited the examples of countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa and the UK who have adopted such Delayed Payment Laws to safeguard the commercial sanctity of the construction industry environment.
Mr Dogbegah also suggested the review of the Shops, Offices and Factories Act
for the effective regulation of construction health and safety.
The Act he said must be replaced with something more streamlined for the construction sector as the risk in such ventures were quite real and disconcerting.
He also called for the review of the Price Adjustment and Fluctuation formula to compensate contractors enough.
He said currently, the indices for the formula generated by the statistical service was not compensating contractors enough as compared to the increasing rate of prices on the market.
“It is therefore the suggestion that construction industry specific indices be used to replace that from the statistical service,” he said.
Mr Dogbegah said the cost of executing projects could be reduced by using a properly executed Bid Declaration forms in lieu of Bank Guarantees or insurance bonds, when an effective regulator regime was enforced.
“This is because when contractors are required to go for facilities to guarantee their performance to execute projects, they also price for the usurious rates from the Banks and the value of the landed property to be used for mortgages etc.; into their bids, which increases the price that the client should have paid for the project,” he said.
By David Adadevoh
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