The Ranking Member on the Parliamentary Select Committee on Works and Housing wants government to stop sole-sourcing contracts for sea defence projects.

Vincent Oppong Asamoah said that it is the only way to prevent the awarding of contracts to firms without the needed capacity to stop shoddy work.

Recently, there has been an increase in coastal erosion. This has increased calls for and scrutiny of sea defence projects.

Mr Asamoah, while addressing the media after a visit by the Committee to inspect works on Ningo-Prampram and Dansoman sea defence projects, questioned the quality of work being done on the Ningo-Prampram project.

He thus urged the government to prioritise competitive bidding when awarding such contracts.

According to him, this will enable the government to select the most suitable contractor for such constructions and also prevent the wastage of scarce resources.

“Contracts on GOG should come by competitive bidding, not sole-sourcing unless that contractor has some special expertise that others do not have.”

In this case, a new contractor will execute it and sole source it to that person; it is so suspicious.”

Mr Asamoah also indicated that there would be further scrutiny of the project.

“This one, we will go into it and find out why a project of this magnitude, of over ¢400 million, will be sole-sourced to a new contractor in the industry.”