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The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Central Tongu, Madam Theodora Ama Agbenyenu, has accused government officials in the national capital, Accra, of colluding with road contractors to dupe the state.

According to her, contracts were often awarded in Accra without the knowledge of the District Assembly, and when the contractors moved to site, they did shoddy or incomplete works, but received full payment at the end of the day.

Citing an instance, she stated that she was shocked to see records in Accra, which indicated that a contractor was awarded and paid for the already-constructed eight-kilometre road from Mafi-Kpedzegblo to Adidome.

The Kpedzegblo-Adidome road is a portion of the Sogakofe-Adidome-Ho road, which was constructed under former President J. A Kufuor during the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration, and had since not developed potholes for any form of contract to be awarded.

At its 2nd General Meeting at Adidome, however, the Central Tongu District Assembly resolved not to allow road contractors from undertaking any projects in the area, without the official involvement of the assembly.

The assembly members also expressed worry over the non-completion of roads awarded to the contractors. They alleged that whenever they started work on an eight-kilometre road, they would only have one kilometre done, but it would be indicated on records in Accra that all the eight kilometres had been completed, and the contractors would be paid in full.

They, therefore, unanimously decided to remain vigilant to prevent the fraudulent activities of the individuals concerned, who were making money at the expense of the needy people in the area.

The poor road network in the area, the assembly members said, was one of their major development concerns, which was known to higher authorities in the road sector, therefore, for them to engage in corrupt deals with the contractors, thereby depriving the people of befitting infrastructure, was most unfortunate.

The assembly members slammed the officials for taking advantage of the bad situation of roads in the district to enrich themselves.

As a measure to put their roads in shape, the assembly members have decided to hire earth-moving machines to regularly reshape bad roads in the district, while the assembly contemplated on purchasing its own equipment for the reshaping of the roads, instead of depending on contractors from Accra, who would do nothing, but would be paid.

After a lengthy discussion, the assembly members vowed not to tolerate the practice where a group of people would decide to deprive the nation of resources that could be used to the benefit of the people.

Some of the assembly members, who spoke to The Chronicle, remarked: “President John Dramani Mahama is doing his best, but there are some people in authority whose activities are tarnishing the image of the government, therefore, the President should investigate the corruption in the road sector in Central Tongu, and punish [the] perpetrators to serve as [a] deterrent to others.”

A Principal Extension Services Specialist of the Community Water and Sanitation, Mr Oscar Ahianyo, used the opportunity to appeal to assembly members to develop special interest in the management and use of water systems in their areas, and report any negative practices to the authorities for correction.

Mr Ahianyo noted that water management and usage was very important, in view of the fact that monies collected from users of water facilities would be used to repair it anytime the system broke down.

Unfortunately, he recalled, in certain parts of the Volta Region, people trained to manage water systems were made redundant, because, as he put it, “certain prominent persons in the region have hijacked water systems and employed their wives and children to be collecting the money and did not account to the authorities.”