A three-day Pre-Tender and Costing Training for contractors on labour Intensive Public Works (LIPW) has been organized for contractors in the country under the Ghana Productive Safety Net Project (GPSNP) in Koforidua .

The training is to build the capacities of prospective contractors who would be undertaking labour Intensive Public Works (LIPW) projects such as feeder roads, as part of an elaborate measure to address the poor quality of public works.

The GPSNP is a Government of Ghana and the World Bank project, which seeks to contribute towards government’s efforts at improving the livelihoods of extremely poor and poor households by harnessing investments in the social protection sector to promote their productivity and access to jobs.

It’s being jointly implemented by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) and Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) and has five components including Productive Inclusion, LEAP cash grants, Social Protection Systems Strengthening, Project Management, Coordination and Capacity Building and the LIPW.

Mrs Abi Karim, Institutional and Capacity Development Specialist (ICDS) said the objective of the LIPW component is to create a short term employment income earning opportunities for over 30,000 poor households through the implementation of small earth dams/dug-outs, feeder roads and climate change mitigation sub-projects in 80 beneficiary districts across the country.

She explained that the training was to help the prospective contractors to understand the preliminaries of LIPW bills of quantity, pricing and tendering to enable them submit realistic tenders that would guarantee them such jobs as well as to execute resilient projects.

Dr Osei Ababio, National Coordinator of the GPSNP, said the training was an aspect of the broad objective of the GPSNP to equip them with the skills in the consulting and construction industry and placing themselves in positions to win contracts under the project.

He said the training was important because per the terms, contractors could not use the same knowledge and business strategy to work under the GPSNP adding that learning skills in tendering was very critical and urged the participants to cease the opportunity.

Mr Sylvanus Adzornu, Director PPME, MLGRD, indicated that the GPNSP was a successor to the Ghana Social Opportunities Project (GSOP) and a tool to alleviate poverty through the assessment of the social impact of LIPW on societies.

He said the project intends to ensure that where projects are being undertaken, labour would be provided by the indigenes to create job opportunities in addition to benefiting from the project itself.