A Ho-based contractor, Mr Stephen Adom, has taken the Ho Polytechnic and the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to court for non-payment of work he did for the institution. Among other things, Mr Adom is claiming GH¢122,894.80 from the polytechnic for the extra cost of work done for the institution under the GETFund projects as well as interests accrued on a loan he took for the completion of the project. In an amended statement of claim, the plaintiff contended that sometime in August, 2004, he was awarded a contract, and in October 2004, April 2005 and November 2005, three interim payments were made to him. According to the plaintiff, two other consequent interim payment certificates, fourth and fifth instalments totalling GH¢122,894.80 had still not been paid to him despite persistent and repeated demands. He stated that somewhere in December, 2005, he had confidential information from the GETFund office that funds were not available for payment for any payment certificate that might be issued and so he suspended work and waited for signals on the availability of funds. The statement said by September, 2006, the plaintiff had received the warning letters from the defendants ordering him to resume work or risk termination of the contract. He added that even though a meeting was held with the Ho Polytechnic authorities where the issue of his fear of delayed payment and the accumulated interests on bank loans could negatively affect his company, were discussed and they gave the assurance that the certificates would be paid on time. According to the statement, because the plaintiff was not sure of prompt payment, he did not resume work. He said, on February 2, 2007, the first defendant caused a publication to be made in the Daily Graphic to impute that the delay in the completion of the project was due to him the plaintiff and sought to portray the plaintiff as lazy, incompetent and unreliable. That publication according to the plaintiff, had caused him much embarrassment and risks of not being awarded any contracts in the country thereby hampering his business. He is therefore seeking the recovery of the outstanding amount with the interest till the date of payment and costs for damages caused for wrongful and malicious newspaper publications made against him by the Ho Polytechnic. The polytechnic on the other hand, claims that sometime ago, the plaintiff applied to it for a loan of GH¢3,000 to complete the project by fixing fittings, which was granted with the agreement that the amount would be deducted from proceeds of its certificates presented to the GETFund for payment. In a statement of defence, the polytechnic also claimed that the plaintiff was the only one among six or seven companies that were awarded similar contracts at the same time but could not complete work within the six months contract period. It also contended that the plaintiff’s action was unnecessary and must be dismissed. Source: Daily Graphic