President Mahama Explains Payment System for 24-Hour Markets, Cites Past Mobilisation Abuse

President John Dramani Mahama has explained the payment structure guiding government’s construction of 24-Hour Markets across the country, saying contractors are required to fund the initial stages of work themselves before receiving payment, a departure from a mobilisation system he said had previously been abused.

Inspecting the 24-Hour Market project at Nadowli Kaleo, the President said some contractors awarded similar projects nationwide lack the financial capacity to begin work, expecting instead to receive mobilisation funds upfront as happened in the past.

“There are some project sites where the people who won the contracts do not have the financial capacity to begin work,” he said.

He said this expectation stemmed from past practice where contractors took mobilisation money without using it for the intended purpose.

“Some contractors assume they will first receive mobilisation, just as happened in the past, when people took mobilisation money and bought V8 vehicles instead of doing the job,” he said.

Mahama said government’s expectation under the current programme is that companies awarded the market contracts should have the financial muscle to start work with their own resources, with payment following only once a set level of progress is achieved.

“We therefore expected that companies awarded these projects would have the financial muscle to start work with their own resources,” he said.

He explained that payment is triggered once a contractor reaches 15 percent completion, after which work continues until the project is finished.

“Once a contractor reaches 15 per cent completion, payment is made, and the work continues until the project is finished,” he said.

The President said funding for the projects is available, and there is no reason a contractor should fail to advance work to that stage.

“The money is available, so there is no reason why any contractor should fail to advance the work to this stage,” he stated.

Commending the contractor working on the Nadowli Kaleo market, President Mahama said the pace of work there reflected what is expected of contractors under the programme, which covers 24-Hour Markets in all 261 constituencies.

“From what I have seen here, the contractor is on track and is doing a very good job. I encourage you to continue the good work,” he said, adding that he hoped other contractors working on similar projects nationwide would take a cue from what is happening in Nadowli.

Richard Aniagyei, ISD