By Kofi Akordor
I did not know how to react to the announcement that the government is to initiate a performance rating and ranking scheme for local contractors. Under the scheme, the performance of contractors will be assessed for each project executed to ensure that only qualified and competent contractors were awarded contracts.
This is a good idea which, some may say, is long overdue. But the truth is that this is not the first time something like this, or close to it, has been heard from men in authority.
Good infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, water and sanitation facilities, schools, hospitals, clinics and health centres, office and residential accommodation and other social amenities, constitutes a vital and major segment in any country’s development agenda. Incidentally, all these amenities share one thing in common — construction.
What that means is that any irregularities or inefficiencies in the construction sector deprive the nation of not only important infrastructure but also the loss of huge amounts of cash, both in local and foreign currency. Already available data, which one needs not be an expert or a government auditor to verify, indicate that construction and its staunch ally, procurement, constitute the widest conduits through which our country and many others on the continent lose money as a result of the endemic corrupt practices associated with the two sectors.
The construction sector, however, poses the biggest challenge in public sector expenditure and development and so any step which will bring sanity into the system, ensure efficiency and accountability will be a decision in the right direction and must be supported by all.
To begin with, most of our local construction firms lack the basic equipment, the capital base, the requisite human resource and the technical expertise for their businesses. For obvious reasons, all sorts of characters have found their way into the construction industry. The result is that the nation is saddled with shoddy work, uncompleted projects and huge debts that cannot be justified.
Governments, it must be admitted, have not helped the cause of contractors in the country. Oftentimes, contractors who commit bank loans to execute public projects are not paid for months and sometimes for years. The Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, at the launch of the new scheme, admitted that the government owed contractors huge sums of money which had piled up over the years and which it was doing everything to clear to put the contractors on a healthy path to revive the industry.
Another factor militating against the growth of the construction industry in the country is governments’ lack of faith and confidence in local contractors. Foreign contractors are always given preferential treatment when it comes to the award of major contracts, which sometimes involve the payment of foreign cash. The argument has always been that the local contractors lack the capital and equipment base to undertake major road and building contracts.
The question is: How do they elevate their status if they are not given the type of jobs that will improve their financial position? The suggestion that the local contractors should team up with foreign companies to bid for jobs with international funding support, to many well-meaning Ghanaians, is not tenable. This is only another excuse to frustrate local entrepreneurs and encourage capital flight from the country. There have been many instances when local consultants have done the spade work, but when it comes to the real job which will fetch them big cash, the clauses which will alienate them are introduced into the contract. Incidentally, these same local engineers do the real work for these expatriate companies which finally win the contracts and succeed in going away with millions of dollars, to the detriment of the development of local expertise.
I believe, and so do many other Ghanaians, that this country abounds in qualified people in the construction industry, from engineers to artisans, and this makes nonsense our incapability to manage big projects when given the opportunity.
The greatest threat to the construction industry is corruption at high places. We have made construction such a lucrative business that everybody, including those who do not know the difference between a ruler and a T-square, call himself or herself a contractor.
Even though there are firm guidelines for the award of contracts through the various tender boards, somehow, along the line, the board members are corrupted or issued with counter orders by powerful people in higher authority. The end result is that transparency, principles and quality are compromised and contracts go to the wrong people. These are people who are prepared to play ball or can throw about pieces of notes from certain personalities occupying high political positions.
Once that is done, the nation, which is the main client of these projects, should not expect anything close to a perfect job. They will either be abandoned midway, delayed or completed in a shoddy way. Once contractors are compelled by circumstances to part with fat envelopes before getting contracts or having their payment certificates approved and processed, the only logical things for them to do to recoup their ‘investments’ is to use inferior material, vary the drawings or engage less skilled staff. Whatever the case, the state is the loser.
It is good to set standards for contractors, which should be the normal thing, any way. It is also good, as an incentive, to reward those who have done good jobs, both in terms of time and quality. It will also satisfy a crucial national objective if local contractors and consultants are encouraged to win big international contracts, instead of always operating in the shadows of foreign companies and consultants.
The best thing the government can do for the construction industry and the general good of Ghana as a nation is to adhere strictly to the guidelines for the award of contracts for public projects. We should stop awarding contracts as reward for political foot soldiers and cronies. We should stop seeing the construction sector as a fertile ground for making illicit money at the expense of national development. It is only when we allow real competition to dominate the industry that we can expect the best out of our contractors.
.kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Monday, January 28, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
The People's Assembly and beyond
January 22,2008
By Kofi Akordor
Every political leader comes to office with something new and President J. A. Kufuor could not be out staged in this regard. He has come something he could call his own. That is the People's Assembly concept. The philosophy behind this concept from the President's own perspective is quite laudable — to bring the presidency to the doorsteps of the people and to have a direct assessment of his policies and programmes, receive complaints and hear the grievances of the people at the grass roots.
It, therefore, did not come as a surprise, when at the latest of the people's assembly held in Sekondi the Western Regional capital, the President appealed for the sustenance of the concept even after his tenure. From various accounts, the Sekondi assembly, like other ones was successful. That is when one considered all protocol arrangements, security and manner the President answered questions posed to him.
However, since the President himself would want the concept to be institutionalised to become part and parcel of our political regimen it is necessary we strip it of any cosmetic dressings and begin to see it as serious part of our political calendar.
First, the idea of lining up people in a queue to fire questions at the President is not the best. It is agreed there must be law and order but it should be possible for the prospective questioners to get seated in an orderly manner in the hall and rise up to ask their questions when called upon to do so. The atmosphere must be relaxed such that those who have serious questions to ask could do so without any fear of intimation
Another thing is that even though the forum is meant to encourage those at the grass root to express themselves and relate more closely with the President, care must be taken so that the whole exercise is not turned into a farce. Some of the questions are just trivial, mundane, bordering on personal sentiments or interests. An opportunity to have a frank chat with the President should not be wasted away on issues that have no regional or national bearing. It should be serious business in a relaxed atmosphere.
The President will be the first to admit that it is an opportunity for him to know the real feelings of the people which may differ from what his district chief executives and ministers may be telling him and, therefore, be in his own interest that only serious national issues are brought before him.
The forum is essentially for members of the public to ask questions. The right purpose will, therefore, be served if more time will be devoted for questions. Last Tuesday, the greater part of the time was spent on drumming and dancing and for the President to narrate the usual catalogue of achievements, something that we have heard again and again.
I do not want to believe it, but I heard some whisperings in certain corners that some people were purposely coached to come and ask certain questions which will be easy for the President to handle. I think if the exercise is to bear fruit, then it must be allowed to follow its natural course. People must be encouraged to ask fair and object questions without fear or favour. Any attempt to doctor the proceedings will dilute the exercise and render it a useless venture. I will rather expect the President to accommodate more 'hostile' questions, because at the end of the day it is the so-called hostile questions which would serve as the real mirror to help him see a true reflection of himself. If we fail to do that, the forum will only serve as a platform to heap praises on the President and that naturally devalues its relevance and significance.
One of the calamities of politics in Africa is that, the president is always surrounded by praise-singers, bootlickers, liars and opportunists, who always shield their boss from the truth for obvious reasons. These are the type of persons who will make our president walk naked among his people without knowing because he had been told, as was written in the “King's Beautiful Cloths “, that only his enemies will not see his beautiful magic cloth. That means telling the truth makes you an enemy of the president. It is only after they have finished with you and you come to terms with your own nakedness that you realise rather too late how you have been fooled by the so-called confidants and trusted friends.
It is, therefore, important that the people's assembly concept is taken seriously and stripped of all political entrapments so that it will serve as a barometer to measure the performance of our presidents and other political leaders. It is an undeniable fact that a lot of the things we read in the newspapers about development projects in the districts are on files and it is during such open forums that some of these truths will come out.
This country would have been a paradise by now if all the good things we have been hearing about and the promises made since independence more than 50 years ago were actually fulfilled.
I was not privileged to be in Sekondi to ask the President a few questions. I know if I were to be in Sekondi I would not have been allowed to ask too many questions and I do not want to abuse the privilege of this column to do that now. However, if I may be permitted, was the President aware that a private company had offered to build one of the two remaining flyovers on the Accra-Tema Motorway which will substantially ease traffic which piles up in front of his private residence on daily basis?
That flyover we were told, would have linked Accra to Tema, Teshie, Nungua, Ashaiman, La, Madina, Adenta and Ashaley Botwe and considerably ease the traffic congestion at the Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange. That project, if it had had official green light, would have transformed the status of the Spintex Road, which now represents a giant fishing net which traps its victims and gives them no room for escape.
I know to some people, for every national project, there should be a personal harvest. So where this is not available or seems to be available, the whole nation must suffer, that is why the President should call his Transport Minister and found out what is happening. In this case, the usual “There is no money” is not an excuse.
If the people of Jamestown or British Accra, were in Sekondi last Tuesday, they would definitely have asked the President, “Where is our modern fishing harbour promised us?” As for me, if I have the opportunity again, the last question I would have asked the President was, “Where is the Accra-Paga railway line, which was to be a Golden Jubilee birthday gift to the nation? The President has limited time between now and election time and so we are anxiously waiting for his answers. For, the best measure for the success of the concept will be President’s response to the questions, not at the assembly halls, but how he solves the issues raised at the assemblies.
By Kofi Akordor
Every political leader comes to office with something new and President J. A. Kufuor could not be out staged in this regard. He has come something he could call his own. That is the People's Assembly concept. The philosophy behind this concept from the President's own perspective is quite laudable — to bring the presidency to the doorsteps of the people and to have a direct assessment of his policies and programmes, receive complaints and hear the grievances of the people at the grass roots.
It, therefore, did not come as a surprise, when at the latest of the people's assembly held in Sekondi the Western Regional capital, the President appealed for the sustenance of the concept even after his tenure. From various accounts, the Sekondi assembly, like other ones was successful. That is when one considered all protocol arrangements, security and manner the President answered questions posed to him.
However, since the President himself would want the concept to be institutionalised to become part and parcel of our political regimen it is necessary we strip it of any cosmetic dressings and begin to see it as serious part of our political calendar.
First, the idea of lining up people in a queue to fire questions at the President is not the best. It is agreed there must be law and order but it should be possible for the prospective questioners to get seated in an orderly manner in the hall and rise up to ask their questions when called upon to do so. The atmosphere must be relaxed such that those who have serious questions to ask could do so without any fear of intimation
Another thing is that even though the forum is meant to encourage those at the grass root to express themselves and relate more closely with the President, care must be taken so that the whole exercise is not turned into a farce. Some of the questions are just trivial, mundane, bordering on personal sentiments or interests. An opportunity to have a frank chat with the President should not be wasted away on issues that have no regional or national bearing. It should be serious business in a relaxed atmosphere.
The President will be the first to admit that it is an opportunity for him to know the real feelings of the people which may differ from what his district chief executives and ministers may be telling him and, therefore, be in his own interest that only serious national issues are brought before him.
The forum is essentially for members of the public to ask questions. The right purpose will, therefore, be served if more time will be devoted for questions. Last Tuesday, the greater part of the time was spent on drumming and dancing and for the President to narrate the usual catalogue of achievements, something that we have heard again and again.
I do not want to believe it, but I heard some whisperings in certain corners that some people were purposely coached to come and ask certain questions which will be easy for the President to handle. I think if the exercise is to bear fruit, then it must be allowed to follow its natural course. People must be encouraged to ask fair and object questions without fear or favour. Any attempt to doctor the proceedings will dilute the exercise and render it a useless venture. I will rather expect the President to accommodate more 'hostile' questions, because at the end of the day it is the so-called hostile questions which would serve as the real mirror to help him see a true reflection of himself. If we fail to do that, the forum will only serve as a platform to heap praises on the President and that naturally devalues its relevance and significance.
One of the calamities of politics in Africa is that, the president is always surrounded by praise-singers, bootlickers, liars and opportunists, who always shield their boss from the truth for obvious reasons. These are the type of persons who will make our president walk naked among his people without knowing because he had been told, as was written in the “King's Beautiful Cloths “, that only his enemies will not see his beautiful magic cloth. That means telling the truth makes you an enemy of the president. It is only after they have finished with you and you come to terms with your own nakedness that you realise rather too late how you have been fooled by the so-called confidants and trusted friends.
It is, therefore, important that the people's assembly concept is taken seriously and stripped of all political entrapments so that it will serve as a barometer to measure the performance of our presidents and other political leaders. It is an undeniable fact that a lot of the things we read in the newspapers about development projects in the districts are on files and it is during such open forums that some of these truths will come out.
This country would have been a paradise by now if all the good things we have been hearing about and the promises made since independence more than 50 years ago were actually fulfilled.
I was not privileged to be in Sekondi to ask the President a few questions. I know if I were to be in Sekondi I would not have been allowed to ask too many questions and I do not want to abuse the privilege of this column to do that now. However, if I may be permitted, was the President aware that a private company had offered to build one of the two remaining flyovers on the Accra-Tema Motorway which will substantially ease traffic which piles up in front of his private residence on daily basis?
That flyover we were told, would have linked Accra to Tema, Teshie, Nungua, Ashaiman, La, Madina, Adenta and Ashaley Botwe and considerably ease the traffic congestion at the Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange. That project, if it had had official green light, would have transformed the status of the Spintex Road, which now represents a giant fishing net which traps its victims and gives them no room for escape.
I know to some people, for every national project, there should be a personal harvest. So where this is not available or seems to be available, the whole nation must suffer, that is why the President should call his Transport Minister and found out what is happening. In this case, the usual “There is no money” is not an excuse.
If the people of Jamestown or British Accra, were in Sekondi last Tuesday, they would definitely have asked the President, “Where is our modern fishing harbour promised us?” As for me, if I have the opportunity again, the last question I would have asked the President was, “Where is the Accra-Paga railway line, which was to be a Golden Jubilee birthday gift to the nation? The President has limited time between now and election time and so we are anxiously waiting for his answers. For, the best measure for the success of the concept will be President’s response to the questions, not at the assembly halls, but how he solves the issues raised at the assemblies.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Two bridges to cross, from Adjiriganor to La
By Kofi Akordor
Accra’s traffic situation is now a matter of concern to all. It started many years ago, but as a result of inaction and the lack of foresight, the problem has been allowed to fester and today everybody is wondering whether there is going to be any remedy.
A survey carried out by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) which was captured by the Daily Graphic in its Wednesday, December 5, 2007, issue, under the headline, “Crisis Looms”, painted a gloomy picture of the traffic situation in the country, especially the nation’s capital.
According to the survey, we are not far away from the situation when vehicular traffic will choke the streets of Accra, bringing it on level terms with what is happening in such mega cities as Lagos in Nigeria and Beijing in China.
The negative effects of traffic jams are quite obvious. To start with, they are counter-productive, since the long hours wasted in traffic affect productivity, not to talk about the physical exhaustion which one experiences in traffic which goes nowhere.
There is also the problem of pollution, which was captured in the DVLA survey. The longer vehicles stay on congested roads, the more the pollutants they emit into the atmosphere and into the nostrils and eyes of pedestrians and other motorists who may not be lucky to be driving in air-conditioned vehicles.
For a country which depends heavily on imported fuel, it is unfortunate that this important and expensive commodity should be allowed to go waste in traffic just trying to cover a shot distance to the workplace. Already, figures released by the Bank of Ghana indicate that the country spent roughly US$2 billion on crude oil imports alone last year.
The question is, why have we allowed ourselves to be caught in this horrendous traffic jam when something could have been done long ago? The truth is that Accra has experienced tremendous expansion over the last two decades or so, without a corresponding improvement in road development. A place like Macarthy Hill, which a few years ago was dotted with a few buildings, is now a first-class residential area. Beyond Macarthy Hill are new residential areas such as Weija, Aplaku, Kokrobite, Ablekuma and other areas along the Accra-Winneba road. In fact, Kasoa, which is administratively part of the Central Region, is umbilically tied to Accra.
Incidentally, all these settlements mentioned continued to use the old single-lane Accra-Winneba road to and fro and the consequent traffic jams had to be experienced to appreciate its enormity and how frustrating it was.
The new dual carriageway from Mallam to Kasoa and beyond has brought some improvement to a bad situation, but even with it the peak hours always have registered heavy traffic on this busy road, either because the engineers have underestimated the volume of traffic or the arteries which should distribute vehicles going to the various residential areas have not been well-developed.
Accra’s phenomenal development is not limited to the western part alone. The eastern part, which links Accra to Tema, has experienced such rapid development that city planners have been overtaken by events. As stated earlier, we would not have come to this desperate state if our governments had been proactive and backed our urban planning engineers with the necessary support to design and develop new road networks to take care of the city’s rapid growth.
Today, as things stand, vehicles coming from La, Teshie, Nungua, Tema and its numerous satellite residential communities must necessarily use the Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange if they are going towards Legon, Adjiriganor, Trasacco Valley, Madina, Adenta, Ashale Botwe, Dodowa and beyond. In the same way, those coming from the above-mentioned places to Tema and the new settlements along the Spintex Road up to the Sakumono Estates, La, Teshie or Nungua must, without any alternative choice, come all the way to Tetteh-Quarshie before selecting their routes, which, at the end of the day, are circuitous, winding and heavily jammed with other commuters.
Separating these two sets of new and emerging residential areas is the almighty Accra-Tema Motorway. At Tetteh-Quarshie, one has to determine whether to use the Motorway before branching into an unapproved route to Communities 13, 14, 15 17, 18, 19 and 20 or use the Spintex Road and suffer the consequences.
For those going to La, Teshie and Nungua the other alternative is to drive all the way through the Airport area, through the Burma Camp Road to join the Accra-Tema Beach Road for those continuing to Teshie and Nungua.
Unknown to many, it will take only one bold decision on the part of the government to get this big problem solved. Even though, according to a top official of the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA), there were no plans for flyovers on the Motorway at its conception, plans have now been made for three of these flyovers. One has already been provided at Ashaiman, linking it to Tema and Accra and the beneficial results are there for all to see.
The other two, which, to a large extent, are of bigger significance, are to be sited near the Accra Abattoir and the Manet Estate. These two, which have the answer to the heavy traffic on the Spintex Road and at the Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange and which can remedy the plight of residents of Adjiriganor, Trasacco Valley, Madina, Adenta, Ashale Botwe and beyond, are still on the drawing board because of the much-heard refrain, “lack of no money”.
This is where the government must exploit private participation in the provision of some of these essential facilities.
Incidentally, a private estate development company, Trasacco Estates Development Company (TEDC), which, apart from its social responsibility, has its corporate interest at stake, has made a proposal to the government, as was reported on page 49 of the Daily Graphic of Wednesday, January 9, 2008. According to the story, the company, in several memoranda to the government, had offered to pre-finance and construct the Motorway end of the flyover which, according to estimates, will cost US$20 million and the cost recouped through two options the government must choose between.
The first option is that the company and its affiliates must be given tax breaks so that it could raise the funds for the project. The second, which sounds reasonable to many people who were asked for their opinions, is the build, operate and transfer (BOT) option.
The government may not be too comfortable with the first option which involves the state losing some amount of revenue needed immediately for development. The same, however, cannot be said of the second, which will make the state and the people the ultimate gainers.
According to the drawings, this flyover will pass through several settlements on the eastern corridor, finally ending at the International Trade Fair Centre at La. Immediately, the advantages of this flyover can be well-imagined. All the areas from Madina, Adenta, Ashale Botwe, East Legon, Adjiriganor and Trasacco Valley will be opened up and linked to the eastern part of Accra, without necessarily using the Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange.
It will also mean that those in La, Teshie, Nungua and the communities along the Spintex Road could link up with their counterparts on the western part of the Motorway without joining the heavy traffic to the Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange.
Even though the Department of Urban Roads has indicated its intention to construct an access road near Community 18 to link the Motorway, that, at best, can only offer temporary relief. The bigger and greater problem will still be hanging on our necks.
Accra’s problem is not about too many vehicles plying the roads; it is about too few roads coming under pressure to give space to our vehicles.
The government cannot do it alone and so where private sector participation is possible, those in authority must not hesitate to take the necessary decisions. The country is lagging seriously behind in development simply because decisions which should be taken today are postponed to tomorrow or they are never taken.
If we do not have US$40 million to build the two flyovers, let us start with one now! The most important thing is that the parties involved will negotiate in a candid and mutually satisfactory win-win manner so that at the end of the day the people of this country are saved from undue hardship, while the integrity and sovereignty of the state are not compromised.
Accra’s traffic situation is now a matter of concern to all. It started many years ago, but as a result of inaction and the lack of foresight, the problem has been allowed to fester and today everybody is wondering whether there is going to be any remedy.
A survey carried out by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) which was captured by the Daily Graphic in its Wednesday, December 5, 2007, issue, under the headline, “Crisis Looms”, painted a gloomy picture of the traffic situation in the country, especially the nation’s capital.
According to the survey, we are not far away from the situation when vehicular traffic will choke the streets of Accra, bringing it on level terms with what is happening in such mega cities as Lagos in Nigeria and Beijing in China.
The negative effects of traffic jams are quite obvious. To start with, they are counter-productive, since the long hours wasted in traffic affect productivity, not to talk about the physical exhaustion which one experiences in traffic which goes nowhere.
There is also the problem of pollution, which was captured in the DVLA survey. The longer vehicles stay on congested roads, the more the pollutants they emit into the atmosphere and into the nostrils and eyes of pedestrians and other motorists who may not be lucky to be driving in air-conditioned vehicles.
For a country which depends heavily on imported fuel, it is unfortunate that this important and expensive commodity should be allowed to go waste in traffic just trying to cover a shot distance to the workplace. Already, figures released by the Bank of Ghana indicate that the country spent roughly US$2 billion on crude oil imports alone last year.
The question is, why have we allowed ourselves to be caught in this horrendous traffic jam when something could have been done long ago? The truth is that Accra has experienced tremendous expansion over the last two decades or so, without a corresponding improvement in road development. A place like Macarthy Hill, which a few years ago was dotted with a few buildings, is now a first-class residential area. Beyond Macarthy Hill are new residential areas such as Weija, Aplaku, Kokrobite, Ablekuma and other areas along the Accra-Winneba road. In fact, Kasoa, which is administratively part of the Central Region, is umbilically tied to Accra.
Incidentally, all these settlements mentioned continued to use the old single-lane Accra-Winneba road to and fro and the consequent traffic jams had to be experienced to appreciate its enormity and how frustrating it was.
The new dual carriageway from Mallam to Kasoa and beyond has brought some improvement to a bad situation, but even with it the peak hours always have registered heavy traffic on this busy road, either because the engineers have underestimated the volume of traffic or the arteries which should distribute vehicles going to the various residential areas have not been well-developed.
Accra’s phenomenal development is not limited to the western part alone. The eastern part, which links Accra to Tema, has experienced such rapid development that city planners have been overtaken by events. As stated earlier, we would not have come to this desperate state if our governments had been proactive and backed our urban planning engineers with the necessary support to design and develop new road networks to take care of the city’s rapid growth.
Today, as things stand, vehicles coming from La, Teshie, Nungua, Tema and its numerous satellite residential communities must necessarily use the Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange if they are going towards Legon, Adjiriganor, Trasacco Valley, Madina, Adenta, Ashale Botwe, Dodowa and beyond. In the same way, those coming from the above-mentioned places to Tema and the new settlements along the Spintex Road up to the Sakumono Estates, La, Teshie or Nungua must, without any alternative choice, come all the way to Tetteh-Quarshie before selecting their routes, which, at the end of the day, are circuitous, winding and heavily jammed with other commuters.
Separating these two sets of new and emerging residential areas is the almighty Accra-Tema Motorway. At Tetteh-Quarshie, one has to determine whether to use the Motorway before branching into an unapproved route to Communities 13, 14, 15 17, 18, 19 and 20 or use the Spintex Road and suffer the consequences.
For those going to La, Teshie and Nungua the other alternative is to drive all the way through the Airport area, through the Burma Camp Road to join the Accra-Tema Beach Road for those continuing to Teshie and Nungua.
Unknown to many, it will take only one bold decision on the part of the government to get this big problem solved. Even though, according to a top official of the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA), there were no plans for flyovers on the Motorway at its conception, plans have now been made for three of these flyovers. One has already been provided at Ashaiman, linking it to Tema and Accra and the beneficial results are there for all to see.
The other two, which, to a large extent, are of bigger significance, are to be sited near the Accra Abattoir and the Manet Estate. These two, which have the answer to the heavy traffic on the Spintex Road and at the Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange and which can remedy the plight of residents of Adjiriganor, Trasacco Valley, Madina, Adenta, Ashale Botwe and beyond, are still on the drawing board because of the much-heard refrain, “lack of no money”.
This is where the government must exploit private participation in the provision of some of these essential facilities.
Incidentally, a private estate development company, Trasacco Estates Development Company (TEDC), which, apart from its social responsibility, has its corporate interest at stake, has made a proposal to the government, as was reported on page 49 of the Daily Graphic of Wednesday, January 9, 2008. According to the story, the company, in several memoranda to the government, had offered to pre-finance and construct the Motorway end of the flyover which, according to estimates, will cost US$20 million and the cost recouped through two options the government must choose between.
The first option is that the company and its affiliates must be given tax breaks so that it could raise the funds for the project. The second, which sounds reasonable to many people who were asked for their opinions, is the build, operate and transfer (BOT) option.
The government may not be too comfortable with the first option which involves the state losing some amount of revenue needed immediately for development. The same, however, cannot be said of the second, which will make the state and the people the ultimate gainers.
According to the drawings, this flyover will pass through several settlements on the eastern corridor, finally ending at the International Trade Fair Centre at La. Immediately, the advantages of this flyover can be well-imagined. All the areas from Madina, Adenta, Ashale Botwe, East Legon, Adjiriganor and Trasacco Valley will be opened up and linked to the eastern part of Accra, without necessarily using the Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange.
It will also mean that those in La, Teshie, Nungua and the communities along the Spintex Road could link up with their counterparts on the western part of the Motorway without joining the heavy traffic to the Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange.
Even though the Department of Urban Roads has indicated its intention to construct an access road near Community 18 to link the Motorway, that, at best, can only offer temporary relief. The bigger and greater problem will still be hanging on our necks.
Accra’s problem is not about too many vehicles plying the roads; it is about too few roads coming under pressure to give space to our vehicles.
The government cannot do it alone and so where private sector participation is possible, those in authority must not hesitate to take the necessary decisions. The country is lagging seriously behind in development simply because decisions which should be taken today are postponed to tomorrow or they are never taken.
If we do not have US$40 million to build the two flyovers, let us start with one now! The most important thing is that the parties involved will negotiate in a candid and mutually satisfactory win-win manner so that at the end of the day the people of this country are saved from undue hardship, while the integrity and sovereignty of the state are not compromised.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
ALl is well that ends well
January 8,2008
All is well that ends well
By Kofi Akordor
Something is happening on our political landscape and I am wondering whether others have noticed it. I am referring to the growing tolerance and maturity being exhibited by the various political parties. Last month, December 2007, to be precise, the People’s National Convention (PNC), the Convention People’s Party (CPP) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) went to congress to elect their presidential candidates and came out with flying colours. The NPP, in particular, surprised everybody, including itself, when it came out from the special delegates’ congress unscathed and stronger than before.
However, this trend was set in December 2006 when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) held its delegates congress at the University of Ghana to elect its flag bearer. The NDC has a history of violence at most of its congresses so when the party was gearing up for the December 2006 congress, many were very apprehensive and sceptical about the outcome.
Readers may remember that at the party’s congress in Koforidua in December 2005 to elect national officers, flesh was torn and blood oozed copiously, tearing the party into tatters. That acrimonious and violent congress led to the resignation of some key members of the party, including Dr Obed Asamoah, who had been defeated in the chairmanship race of the party. Later, together with other disenchanted members, he formed the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP).
That event was preceded by two other events which ended on sour notes. The first was in 2002, at the party’s congress at the Ghana International Trade Fair Centre to elect national executives. The party came out so heavily bruised that it could not garner the necessary strength to conduct its 2004 electioneering. The second was in 2003, at the congress at the University of Ghana to elect the flag bearer for the 2004 presidential elections.
If what happened at the trade fair centre a year earlier was a fight, Legon was a battle ground for war between supporters of Prof J.E. Atta Mills and Dr Kwesi Botchwey, the two contestants. That, and the 2002 episode, played a big role in the party’s defeat in 2004.
That was why the party’s 2006 congress was approached with caution and suspicion. Many thought the NDC would disintegrate further and possibly sound the death knell of the party, depending on the outcome. That never happened. “We shall not desert the party, we shall not form a new party and we shall throw our full weight behind Prof Mills to capture the presidential seat in 2008,” Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, the man who injected a lot of power into the contest and who was seen to be marshalling a lot of support among the youth, declared after the results had been announced.
All the candidates left the Legon campus pledging unity and support for the party and, with the blessing of Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings, always seen as the source of most of the confusion, the party came out intact and more solid than before.
The CPP congress, held at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi last December to elect its presidential candidate, was more exciting than those of previous years. This was apparent because of the entry into the race of stalwarts such as Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, a former Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, and Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, a business entrepreneur and a former minister in President J.A. Kufuor’s government. The two, together with Mr George Aggudey, Dr F.W.K. Akuffo and Dr Kwaku Osafo, brought some life into the CPP and gave some hope to its supporters.
However, the party which electrified the political scene last year was the NPP. With a record entry of 18 presidential aspirants, the party caught national attention, with many asking whether all those declaring their intention to contest for the flagbearership of the party were serious or not. Some believed that by the time nominations opened, a lot of the candidates would bow out honourably and leave the field for, say, five candidates.
Those who thought that way were disappointed. When nominations opened, all the 18 candidates went for the forms and actually paid the GH¢25,000 filing fee to prove their seriousness. One candidate, Mr Nkrabea Effah-Darteh, however, fell by the wayside on technical grounds. The rest marched on to congress.
Though all the candidates pledged to conduct their campaigns in a mature and decent manner, caution was thrown to the winds when the going got tough and mudslinging became the order of the day. At one stage, it was alleged that Nana Akufo-Addo’s dentures were falling. At other times it was said of him that he was arrogant and that he sounded too upper-class British.
The other candidates had their fair share of condemnation and ridicule. But the man who caught the biggest attraction was Mr Alan Kyerematen, perceived to be the President’s darling boy and who had enough to spread and spare. Like the Biblical Joseph, who was seen by his brothers as the darling of Jacob, their father, and who must be eliminated, all the other candidates and, to a large extent, the rank and file of the party, as it seemed, ganged up against Mr Kyerematen, the Cash Man.
The party as a whole was not spared image bashing. For many people, for 18 candidates to express interest in the presidency meant there was something more than leadership at stake. To some, the NPP was full of people who were inordinately or overly ambitious or just power hungry. Others felt that some of the candidates, after a critical self-examination, would have realised that they had no chance, but in their quixotic mentality, they thought the delegates would embrace them.
However, at the end of the day, it was democracy which triumphed. The NPP congress demonstrated that when the people were given the freedom, they knew how to make a choice. That is why it is wrong for a few individuals to come to the conclusion that a government has lost favour and arrogate to themselves the authority to remove it from power.
All said and done, Mr Kyerematen should be congratulated on the excitement and anxiety he injected into last year’s campaign for the presidential slot and the eventual success of the congress. He brought real competition into the game which, otherwise, from the look of things, was going to be a one-way traffic for Nana Akufo-Addo, the eventual winner.
Even though he was accused of dishing out money freely and exploiting the blessing of the President, Mr Kyerematen sustained the tempo of the campaign and left some of the candidates dazed and mesmerised with his campaign strategy. Some of the aspirants, no doubt, might have wondered whether he was one of them.
When he felt he was running out of time, he went by air, while others struggled with the pothole-filled roads to reach the delegates. In fact, it needed a formidable person like Nana Akufo-Addo to deny Mr Kyerematen his presidential ambitions.
When it mattered most, it needed a Kyerematen style to bring proceedings to a happy end when the man threw in the towel after a thrilling first-round contest when he could have overstretched the already tired delegates to a second gruelling round. That singular and honourable decision ensured party solidarity and took the steam out of the doomsday prophets, sending the strategists of the opposing parties running into their planning offices, knowing that now had a lot of work to do.
The outcomes of the various congresses, to me, have a common message to Ghanaians: That our politics is maturing very fast and that hero-worshipping, tribal, religious or ethnic sentiments have very little to determine the people’s choice if it comes to those who hold their destinies in their hands. We are gradually getting to the point where a critical assessment of the quality of candidates will supersede all other considerations.
We are beginning to realise that numbers are good spices for democracy, that they engender healthy competition and offer freedom of choice. We are also learning to accept that tolerance and accommodation are the best tools to confront underdevelopment. It is for this reason that we should get ready for a tough and interesting presidential and parliamentary contest this year.
Kofiakordor.blogspot.com
All is well that ends well
By Kofi Akordor
Something is happening on our political landscape and I am wondering whether others have noticed it. I am referring to the growing tolerance and maturity being exhibited by the various political parties. Last month, December 2007, to be precise, the People’s National Convention (PNC), the Convention People’s Party (CPP) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) went to congress to elect their presidential candidates and came out with flying colours. The NPP, in particular, surprised everybody, including itself, when it came out from the special delegates’ congress unscathed and stronger than before.
However, this trend was set in December 2006 when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) held its delegates congress at the University of Ghana to elect its flag bearer. The NDC has a history of violence at most of its congresses so when the party was gearing up for the December 2006 congress, many were very apprehensive and sceptical about the outcome.
Readers may remember that at the party’s congress in Koforidua in December 2005 to elect national officers, flesh was torn and blood oozed copiously, tearing the party into tatters. That acrimonious and violent congress led to the resignation of some key members of the party, including Dr Obed Asamoah, who had been defeated in the chairmanship race of the party. Later, together with other disenchanted members, he formed the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP).
That event was preceded by two other events which ended on sour notes. The first was in 2002, at the party’s congress at the Ghana International Trade Fair Centre to elect national executives. The party came out so heavily bruised that it could not garner the necessary strength to conduct its 2004 electioneering. The second was in 2003, at the congress at the University of Ghana to elect the flag bearer for the 2004 presidential elections.
If what happened at the trade fair centre a year earlier was a fight, Legon was a battle ground for war between supporters of Prof J.E. Atta Mills and Dr Kwesi Botchwey, the two contestants. That, and the 2002 episode, played a big role in the party’s defeat in 2004.
That was why the party’s 2006 congress was approached with caution and suspicion. Many thought the NDC would disintegrate further and possibly sound the death knell of the party, depending on the outcome. That never happened. “We shall not desert the party, we shall not form a new party and we shall throw our full weight behind Prof Mills to capture the presidential seat in 2008,” Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, the man who injected a lot of power into the contest and who was seen to be marshalling a lot of support among the youth, declared after the results had been announced.
All the candidates left the Legon campus pledging unity and support for the party and, with the blessing of Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings, always seen as the source of most of the confusion, the party came out intact and more solid than before.
The CPP congress, held at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi last December to elect its presidential candidate, was more exciting than those of previous years. This was apparent because of the entry into the race of stalwarts such as Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, a former Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, and Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, a business entrepreneur and a former minister in President J.A. Kufuor’s government. The two, together with Mr George Aggudey, Dr F.W.K. Akuffo and Dr Kwaku Osafo, brought some life into the CPP and gave some hope to its supporters.
However, the party which electrified the political scene last year was the NPP. With a record entry of 18 presidential aspirants, the party caught national attention, with many asking whether all those declaring their intention to contest for the flagbearership of the party were serious or not. Some believed that by the time nominations opened, a lot of the candidates would bow out honourably and leave the field for, say, five candidates.
Those who thought that way were disappointed. When nominations opened, all the 18 candidates went for the forms and actually paid the GH¢25,000 filing fee to prove their seriousness. One candidate, Mr Nkrabea Effah-Darteh, however, fell by the wayside on technical grounds. The rest marched on to congress.
Though all the candidates pledged to conduct their campaigns in a mature and decent manner, caution was thrown to the winds when the going got tough and mudslinging became the order of the day. At one stage, it was alleged that Nana Akufo-Addo’s dentures were falling. At other times it was said of him that he was arrogant and that he sounded too upper-class British.
The other candidates had their fair share of condemnation and ridicule. But the man who caught the biggest attraction was Mr Alan Kyerematen, perceived to be the President’s darling boy and who had enough to spread and spare. Like the Biblical Joseph, who was seen by his brothers as the darling of Jacob, their father, and who must be eliminated, all the other candidates and, to a large extent, the rank and file of the party, as it seemed, ganged up against Mr Kyerematen, the Cash Man.
The party as a whole was not spared image bashing. For many people, for 18 candidates to express interest in the presidency meant there was something more than leadership at stake. To some, the NPP was full of people who were inordinately or overly ambitious or just power hungry. Others felt that some of the candidates, after a critical self-examination, would have realised that they had no chance, but in their quixotic mentality, they thought the delegates would embrace them.
However, at the end of the day, it was democracy which triumphed. The NPP congress demonstrated that when the people were given the freedom, they knew how to make a choice. That is why it is wrong for a few individuals to come to the conclusion that a government has lost favour and arrogate to themselves the authority to remove it from power.
All said and done, Mr Kyerematen should be congratulated on the excitement and anxiety he injected into last year’s campaign for the presidential slot and the eventual success of the congress. He brought real competition into the game which, otherwise, from the look of things, was going to be a one-way traffic for Nana Akufo-Addo, the eventual winner.
Even though he was accused of dishing out money freely and exploiting the blessing of the President, Mr Kyerematen sustained the tempo of the campaign and left some of the candidates dazed and mesmerised with his campaign strategy. Some of the aspirants, no doubt, might have wondered whether he was one of them.
When he felt he was running out of time, he went by air, while others struggled with the pothole-filled roads to reach the delegates. In fact, it needed a formidable person like Nana Akufo-Addo to deny Mr Kyerematen his presidential ambitions.
When it mattered most, it needed a Kyerematen style to bring proceedings to a happy end when the man threw in the towel after a thrilling first-round contest when he could have overstretched the already tired delegates to a second gruelling round. That singular and honourable decision ensured party solidarity and took the steam out of the doomsday prophets, sending the strategists of the opposing parties running into their planning offices, knowing that now had a lot of work to do.
The outcomes of the various congresses, to me, have a common message to Ghanaians: That our politics is maturing very fast and that hero-worshipping, tribal, religious or ethnic sentiments have very little to determine the people’s choice if it comes to those who hold their destinies in their hands. We are gradually getting to the point where a critical assessment of the quality of candidates will supersede all other considerations.
We are beginning to realise that numbers are good spices for democracy, that they engender healthy competition and offer freedom of choice. We are also learning to accept that tolerance and accommodation are the best tools to confront underdevelopment. It is for this reason that we should get ready for a tough and interesting presidential and parliamentary contest this year.
Kofiakordor.blogspot.com
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