Tema (Greater Accra) 20 April ?99

Eighteen District Chief Executives, District Co-ordinating Directors and heads of decentralised departments attending a course in management skills and project management in Accra on Monday expressed concern about delays in the completion of government projects.

They identified the slow work culture of project consultants and contractors as some of the major causes of delays, resulting in the high numbers of abandoned projects in the country. The participants visited Tema as part of a four-week course being organised by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and the Management Development and Productive Institute (MDPI) with sponsorship from the European Union (EU).

They were drawn from nine districts in the Greater Accra and Eastern Regions. While admitting that some of the problems could be found at the door steps of the district assemblies, consultants on projects always have too much work at hand while most often, they have no deadlines for presenting designs. Nii Armah Ashietey, Tema Municipal Chief Executive who led them to inspect the assembly's office complex and a new library project, said the consultants are responsible for the delay on the projects. The assembly completed an eight flat storey in 14 months, which had no consultant on the project while the other projects with consultants have delayed for about four years. Nii Ashietey said one complaint of consultants is that their roles and responsibilities are not well defined in the award of contracts. This creates confusion between the consultants and Works Department of the assemblies. Another issue is the practice of awarding contracts before drawings or designs are ready. This compels the district assemblies to hire consultants. Nii Ashietey said the assembly has been unable to retain certain professionals on the job due to brighter opportunities elsewhere, adding "this sometimes contributes to delays in the inspection of projects for certificates to be issued. Mr Joe Bosomefi, chief consultant of the MDPI, stressed the need for regular up-to-date information on projects at various levels. Regular cost variations on a project are indications of problems of planning from the initial stages and advised assemblies to consider future expectations in their planning projects, he said.

The engineers and works departments of the assemblies should always expedite action on requests of contractors to avoid cost variations which are additional cost to government. The issue of cash strapped contractors who always want to be paid at any stage of their contracts must be dealt with by indicating clearly the terms of payments in the contract.

Mr Bosomefi said the course was a new human resource development programme of the Ministry of Local Government and the European Union. It is aimed at looking at proper project documentation, costing and how to plan projects towards execution, causes of delays and what to do to ensure successful completion of government projects. He said recommendations will be presented to the ministry for its consideration.