The Roads and Highways Ministry has directed all contractors who abandoned project sites due to delayed release of funds to return immediately or risk being sacked.

This follows the release of some ¢800 million by government for the payment of arrears owed contractors last month.

Addressing a community durbar of chiefs and people at the Anyaa Sowutuom Constituency, Deputy Minister for Roads and Highways, Stephen Pambin Jalula, said the release of the monies to the contractors must be accompanied by a swift return to complete the work.

He said, "All the contractors who have left the site due to nonpayment should be back to site any moment from now.

"And let me add that if any contractor doesn’t come to the site after receiving payment, the engineers within the urban roads will write to them warning letter, and if they fail to come, their contracts will be terminated."

He, however, admitted that the progress of major road projects which started earlier in 2020 has stalled due to the delay in payment of contractors.

But with the inauguration of the road fund board and the subsequent release of the ¢800 million by government, work is expected to pick up again.

"From the beginning of the year, payment to contractors was not forthcoming. But as we speak now, government is paying and for that matter the road fund board has been set up about one month ago and has also started payment to contractors," he added.

The sector Minister, Kwesi Amoako Atta, had inaugurated the Road Fund Board earlier in August, assuring the immediate release of cheques after the completion of the necessary documentations.

The minister explained that the government had been settling its indebtedness to contractors for the past one-and-a-half months and expressed optimism that the contractors themselves would, in the next few months, appreciate efforts made to settle the payment, as a substantial amount had already been made been paid to some of them.

On the delayed payment, the minister indicated that most road projects were paid for by government of Ghana and the Road Fund, but unfortunately, the previous administration in 2016 used the fund as collateral and borrowed ¢1.3 billion from UBA.

The situation left the fund on its knees as the interest in the facility kept on increasing until the previous board, and other stakeholders took a bold decision and approached three banks to pre-finance the debt.

He added that “they were fortunate to be given a 12-months moratorium which helped the fund to begin making payments regarding its debts.”