Cape Coast, July 20, GNA - Nana Ato Arthur, the Central Regional Minister, on Thursday expressed concern about delays in execution of road contracts in the region by local contractors.

He said only two of 15 contracts awarded for the construction of highways since 2003 have been completed and 20 per cent of more than 100 feeder road projects have been completed.

Nana Arthur, who said this when he interacted with road contractors in the region at Cape Coast, told them that the situation did not auger well for the development of the region.

He said in view of such delays, a contract for the rehabilitation of a 13.5-kilometre Enyinabrem/Baako road in the Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa District funded by the World Bank had to be repackaged, reducing the kilometres to be worked on to 6.5km.

The minister said this did not only affect the government but the beneficiary communities as well and stressed that award of more contracts to them would be based on their performance. Nana Arthur said he was also unhappy about the quality of work by some of the contractors and urged them to ensure that they engaged efficient consultants for the execution of their projects. He said his office would soon be visiting all contract sites in the region and told them to collaborate with District Chief executives to enable the DCEs to assist them if the need arose.

Mr Kwaku Asamoah Nkrumah of ASKUU Enterprise LTD, appealed for the provision of heavy-duty equipment as well as funds for the purchase of chippings and other constructional materials since they found it expensive to execute contracts on bank loans.

He complained about the tendency of communities where contracts are located to extort monies from contractors for the use of gravel or sand and other materials from their locality, and called on the minister to help stem the practice.