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A separate ministry for housing and urban development has been proposed by the Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Alban Bagbin. This comes after the collapse of the STX Housing project under which 30,000 houses were earmarked for construction for the security services. Answering questions at the launch of the first National Building and Civil Contractors Awards yesterday, which is scheduled for December 2011, Mr. Bagbin said the ministry, when established, will provide sole attention to the housing sector to accelerate urban development. According to him, Ghana needs over $1.5 billion annually to invest into the infrastructure or construction industry in order to move up in the middle income country status. �A chunk of the budget goes into the development of infrastructure and will remain that for a long time because we are confronted with infrastructure deficit.� He challenged the contractors to exhibit excellence, saying the construction industry is the health of the economy because when the sector booms jobs would be created. On the revival of the collapsed pozzolano factory in the Central region, he said government has directed the use of pozzolano cement, an indigenous product for the execution of all government projects. He therefore urged the company to undertake vigorous marketing of the product in order to attract buyers as well as build a brand. Rockson Dogbegah, Chairman of the technical Committee of the Association of Building and Civil Engineering Contractors of Ghana (ABCECG) said the construction industry is bedeviled with challenges, calling on the sector ministry to review and improve the process of registration of contractors to reflect best practices in the world. He suggested that the registration of the contractors and renewal of their licenses should be done in consultation with ABCECG and urged the ministry to support local contractors to procure fresh equipment to help build their capacity and improve delivery. He noted that foreign contractors are duly paid interest on delayed payment of work while local contractors are branded as litigants and threatened whenever they attempt to claim interest on delayed payments. He however tasked contractors to ensure improved service delivery, saying �The time has come for all of us to take the cross of quality and follow the path of time delivery within budget of projects�. The primary objective of the awards is to promote the execution of standard building civil works, as well as address shoddy works. In all, the contractors will vie for 15 categories including the ultimate prize, the national building contractor of the year award. There will be awards for outstanding quality and workmanship, outstanding health safety and environmental management and outstanding time and site management and the best timely paying client and best consultant. Meanwhile, government says it has paid GH�141 million to contractors to settle arrears and outstanding commitment. Professor Newman Kwadwo Kusi, Chief Director, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning said a large portion of this amount totaling GH�91 million was paid to contractors working on roads and non-road projects.