The Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Letsa, is in the news for having condemned the use of an additional amount of GH¢3.3million to renovate a newly-constructed office complex for the Afadjato South District Assembly in the region due to shoddy work on the edifice.
The renovation was occasioned by some structural defects detected by the assembly’s engineers after the contractor had handed over the building.
The question is, “is the condemnation enough?”
Are there no provisions in the contractual agreement that hold the contractor responsible such that he must be made to bear the cost of the renovation?
The public must know when exactly the contractor handed over the assembly complex and whether the time lapse exempts him from such obligation.
We are worried because there are a number of unreported such cases which are yet known by members of the public.
We all see certain public structures with defects and we wonder what happened and who approved them for handover.
It appears we live in a country where people who cause financial loss to the state go scot-free even though there is a law addressing that problem.
It is a worrying situation which public-spirited Ghanaians and institutions lament over.
This is why we consider as imperative the charge by the Chartered Institute of
Supply Chain Management (CISCM) to the government to arrest and prosecute individuals who mismanage or steal state funds, to serve as deterrent to those serving in the public sector.
Mismanagement or stealing come in various ways, including inflating contract cost, refusing to execute projects to specifications, refusing to execute projects, and siphoning public funds.
Such negative acts contribute to worsening the poverty in the country.
In fact, Concern Worldwide, formerly called Africa Concern, an Ireland aid and humanitarian agency founded in 1968, on March 4, 2020 published 11 factors that cause poverty across the globe and one of them relates to poor public works and infrastructure.
If only the renovation on the Afadjato South District Assembly cost GH¢3.3million, one can imagine the cost of the numerous unreported cases.
Today, the country is expecting a $3billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout, which could have been needless if corruption in the country, including shoddy works on public projects, had been checked by the government.
Is it not worrying or curious that corruption in the country in 2019 was pegged at $3billion?
In the face of this, we think every call to check all forms of corruption in the country must be checked by the government.
However, it appears that check is lacking, which is why the call by CISCM and others, including us, on the government for accountability in the public administration space must be taken seriously this time round.
Even though we think if the laws dealing with corruption in the country are strictly applied, it will not be completely eliminated, it can drastically be reduced.
We, therefore, appeal to the government to do all it can to check corruption, including shoddy works, to save money to meet gaping needs to bring some relief to the people.
