The Ghana Chamber of Construction Industry (GhCCI) has threatened to take legal action against government for its failure to pay over GH¢10 billion accrued debt it owes contractors.
According to the contractors, government has not paid them for work done for over four years now.
This situation, they bemoaned, has had a negative toll on both businesses and their personal lives.
Members of the Chamber include the Association of Road Contractors (ASROC), the Progressive Road Construction Association (PROCA), the Ghana Institution of Engineers, the Ghana Institution of Surveyors, the Ghana Institution of Architects, the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA), the Artisans Association of Ghana (AAG) and Ghana Electrical Contractors Association (GECA) and the Ghana Institution of Planners.
The rest are the Ghana Electronic Security and Safety Association (GESSA), Chartered Institute of Builders (CIOB), Ghana Hub, Association of Building and Civil Engineering Contractors of Ghana (ABCECG).
Speaking at a news conference in Accra yesterday, the Chief Executive Officer of GhCCI, Emmanuel Cherry served notice that their members will resort to the courts to compel government to pay them.
“Approximately 10 billion Ghana cedis is in arrears as we speak. We are even being charitable with the figure. If we should log altogether with the interest upon the interest of delayed payment, it will be more than this honestly speaking. So just imagine, government owing contractors just debt portfolio, and see what it can do for the economic fibre of the country. So people are crying that there’s no money because the government has failed to pay contractors”.
Mr. Cherry added that, “if our chairman is threatening that we’ll take legal action against government, it is because of this. We have waited for too long and the time has come”.
The Chamber has also asked government to account to Ghanaians, on how much of the proceeds from the Electronic Transaction Levey (E-levy) has been invested into infrastructure development.
