THE government has made available GH¢848,000 to the Department of Feeder Roads (DFR) for road maintenance and rehabilitation with labour-based technology.
Under the labour-based technology, inhabitants within the community in which the road is being constructed are engaged to do the work, mostly without the use of heavy construction equipment.
The process, which created jobs, particularly in the rural areas, about 20 years ago and reduced poverty, had to be abandoned due to lack of funds.
The Minister of Roads and Highways, Mr Joe Gidisu, made this known in an address read on his behalf by his deputy, Mr Rojo Mettle Nunoo, at this year’s annual management seminar of the DFR in Koforidua.
The two-day seminar, on the theme, “Optimisation of resources for effective contract supervision”, which is being attended by regional managers and other road engineers of the DFR, is to examine the 2009 performance and come up with measures that will improve their activities.
According to Mr Gidisu, it had become necessary to revamp the technology, which he said had created jobs for the people, reduced poverty and boosted the economy.
He said the successful application of the labour-based technology in road rehabilitation and maintenance in the country won the confidence of the international community, as a result of which Ghana was chosen to host an international seminar on it in 1996, adding that the country had again been selected to host a similar international seminar in 2011.
The minister, who was hopeful that the participants would come up with a meaningful programme that would make it possible to tremendously improve the road sector, asked the managers to regularly visit the construction sites to ensure that construction firms executed the jobs within the required specifications.
The Director of the DFR, Mr E.N.K. Ashong, said out of the 42,000 km of feeder roads in the country, 608km was on periodic maintenance contract, while 203 km was on routine maintenance, with an average of 81 contracts on supervision per region.
He stated that the slowdown in the performance of contractors due to delays in payment for jobs done in recent times would improve due to improvement in funding.
Mr Ashong listed a number of challenges facing the road sector, including the large number of contracts, limited supervision, improper project preparations, the inability of contractors to submit work programmes and updates, improper supporting documents for work certification and delays in payment for work done, and expressed the hope that those problems would be solved.
Earlier, the Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Ofosu, had said a number of bridges would be constructed and roads rehabilitated in the region, especially in the rural areas, to make it possible for farmers to cart their produce to the marketing centres.
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