The Chief Executive Officer of the National Youth Authority (NYA), Sylvester Mensah Tetteh, has expressed dissatisfaction over the slow pace of work by the contractor working on the multi-purpose Youth Resource Center in Koforidua.

Despite feeling let down, the CEO assured that the project would be completed before December 2020. He has, therefore, summoned the consultant of the project to Accra for a meeting to provide tangible reasons for the delay since the Authority is not owing the contractor.

“Nothing has changed since we last left this place. I’m not happy. In fact, I don’t know what to say and think I’m here with the Board Chair and Board members and when we go back to Accra we will take a firm decision. What I can assure the public is that we will complete this project before December. This is the first phase of the project, there is an intended phase II that is supposed to start from June. We have one month to go and this is what we are seeing, I am particularly not happy,” he discontented.

He clarified that “let me place on record that the Authority does not owe any contractor. We expect the work to get to a certain stage. It is still about 69% complete we want to see 90 to 95% work done at this stage. I’m not happy and I’m not sure anybody on the team here is happy with the pace of work. The site looks like an abandoned site”

The CEO expressed this sentiment on Wednesday, April 29 when he led a team alongside his Board Members to inspect the project.

On her part, the NYA Board Chair Francisca Oteng Mensah said the Board will diligently advise the Authority on the way forward as far as the Koforidua Project is concerned.

She said, “ideally they are supposed to hand over site somewhere in June. So that phase II can equally kick start but looking at the work done I doubt whether or not indeed the contractor can finish work by June. However, it is proper that as a Board we are equally here to see things for ourselves.”

But the Project Manager William Darko Mensah told the media that the main challenge of the company is non-payment of certificates raised.

“I have worked up to January raised certificate and we are getting to May we have still not received payment. From January to April ending how do you move as a contractor when you don’t have money. If we do not have money it will be difficult for us to move as we have to move. We are not asking for advance payment but the work that we have done so if we have it we will be able to move”.

The Sports Minister Isaac Kwame Asiamah in March 2018 cut sod for the upgrading of the Koforidua Sports Stadium to a modern standard sports facility with a sitting capacity of 5000. The project was expected to be completed within nine months after sod cutting.

The $1.8 million project is among dozens of youth resource centres being constructed across the country to provide Ghanaian youth with opportunities to develop their talents in all the ten regions of the country.

The facility, when completed, will house an 8-lane athletic track, a FIFA standard pitch, career counselling centre, basketball and handball courts as well as a multi-purpose sports hall, a restaurant and an ICT centre.