The Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), the nation’s educational infrastructure development outfit, says that there is no room for shoddy works by contractors in this election year as it happened in the past.
To give credence to the warning, the GETFund Secretariat, has stopped giving out multiple contracts to one entity as it was the case in some past election years.
Contractors with multiple contracts are unable to concentrate on better delivery as they have a divided attention on the projects they work on.
A highly placed source, at the GETFund, said that the educational infrastructure outfit was poised to ensure quality projects and value for money.
“In the past, we had one contractor having three or more jobs at a time, especially in election year, but this is past, as the current handlers will not allow that to happen again,” the source said.
According to the source, measures have been put in place to ensure that quality delivery on time is not compromised.
The source said: “Consultants on all projects across the country now submit reports every month on progress made on various works, something that never happened in the past.”
“The Board of Directors of GETFund for the first time in history has a monitoring role and, in addition to that, a team made up of GETFund, Funds and Procurement Management Unit (FPMU) and the Ministry of Education have come together to monitor projects,” the source said.
So far, the team has toured almost all regions to have insight into progress made on various educational projects to make sure that things are being done right.
Touching on the immediate plans of GETFund, the source said that 2020 would see tertiary institutions having lots of projects.
“Tertiary level will be provided with much infrastructure this year as the second cycle institutions have seen projects in recent times,” the source added.
GETFund Under Mr. Boadu And Prof. Fobih Led Board
The GETFund, under the current administrator, Mr. Richard Boadu, and the Board led by former Minister of Education, Professor Dominic Fobih, is witnessing massive unprecedented transformation.
Hitherto, contractors were using the GETFund as a cash cow where they were virtually paid for shoddy works done.
There was no proper monitoring of projects, as well as better payment, as contractors were owed several years.
The current handlers fashioned out proper ways of paying contracts, paving the way for chunks of arrears to be paid to contractors.
Presently, contractors are able to secure payment in just a matter of four weeks after submitting genuine documentations on completed projects.
With the institution of a proper payment plan, contractors of GETFund projects now have leverage and credibility within the banking sector, as banks are ready to offer them credit facilities.
Since the establishment of the GETFund in 2000, it is under the current management and board that a very strong monitoring outfit has been established.
Logistics, including vehicles for the all-important monitoring exercise, has been procured, while the the GETFund Zonal Office has been established at Kumasi to take care of the Middle Belt and Northern Sectors.
This year will see the setting up of an office to take care of the Northern Sector so that the Kumasi office will deal with the Middle Belt Zone, while the Accra office would deal with the Southern Sector.
The current administration, in 2018, secured some $1.5billion for the GETFund to take care of old projects’ completion and the commencement of new ones.
Arrears owed to contractors who worked on projects in second cycle institutions from 2014 to 2019 had been paid.