NATIONAL PRESIDENT ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE AGM HELD IN TAMALE ON 26TH APRIL 2013 THEME: “DEVELOPMENT THROUGH PARTNERSHIP WITH OUR STAKEHOLDERS”. Mr. Chairman, Honorable Ministers of State, Imams, Honorable Members of Parliament, Distinguish Invited Guests, Fellow Contractors, the Media, Ladies and Gentlemen. On behalf of the Association of Building and Civil Engineering Contractors of Ghana, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you all and thank you sincerely for making time to be part of this Occasion. Mr. Chairman we have chosen the theme for the Annual General Meeting (AGM), Development through Partnership with our Stakeholders. We know that the Construction Industry holds the Key to the Development of every nation. Mr. Chairman, Infrastructure delivery should be the main vehicle for delivering Socio – economic growth, development, rural development and poverty alleviation. Mr. Chairman all sectors ie Agriculture, Education, Health, Mining, and Transportation to mention a few cannot thrive without the Construction Industry. We therefore need to work closely with our Stakeholders to build, develop and sustain the Construction Industry. Mr. Chairman, members of ABCECG have for the past three years been having dialogue with our Sector ministry, Ministry of Water Resources Work and Housing, and other Stakeholders for the establishment of a Regulatory Body to harmonize the work of the Stakeholders to sanitize and develop the Construction Industry. Mr. Chairman, the Regulator would provide the Strategic leadership, growth, reform and development of the Sector. In connection with this, ABCECG has received funding from BUSAC to hold a second stakeholder workshop and subsequent dialogues. Mr. Chairman, it is tradition that Associations sustain themselves through subscriptions, fund raising etc. but our Association is financially very weak. Most members complain of having no jobs to do, those who have jobs are being impoverished for delay payments that leads to heavy losses by way of heavy interest payments. Most of those who are better resourced are not members of the Association. These groups of Contractors have a free day without regard to any code of ethics. Mr. Chairman we are calling on Government to find a way of bringing all Contractors Associations in their respective disciplines together to sanitize the Industry eg. All Building and Civil Engineering Contractors should belong to ABCECG, Road Contractors should belong to either ASROC or PROCA Then all electrical contractors should belong to GECA. By these no contractor will float and cannot be identified when there is the need. These will curb indiscipline in the Sector. Mr. Chairman, recently the Police wrote to us to furnish information on the Contractor who built the Collapsed Melcom Building. We wrote back to the police telling them we do not know the Contractor because his name is not in our register. Mr. Chairman, the object of ABCECG among others is to promote the welfare of members, partner government in its development agenda, seek the building Capacity of members and our workforce. ABCECG is a National Organization with our Secretariat in all 10 Regions of Ghana. We are therefore strong on the ground to provide oversight responsibility on members’ projects with the view to maintaining standards. Mr. Chairman we are calling on Government to partner us in real terms in dealing closely with the Association to prosecute the development agenda of our dear Nation. CAPACITY BUILDING In some years back our sector ministry used to organize training programmes for our managers in collaboration with BRRI. We are requesting the sector minister to reinstate this programme. This will go a long way to grow and sustain the Industry. ABCECG is collaborating with NVTI and COTVET to train our artisans in all ten regions in Ghana. FINANCING Mr. Chairman, financing of Contractors is so vital that it cannot be overemphasized. In the past, contractors were given mobilization to execute contracts. This time Contractors pre – finance government contracts. When a contractor pre-finances a project and payment delays, it affects early completion of the project. The economic gain of the project would delay and cost would rise. The Contractor and his workers are affected and the economy suffers. Mr. Chairman as you all know, Construction and Building are the cornerstone and pillars serving all process of development. It is a nice opportunity to brief you about mighty (AFCCA) African Federation of Construction contractors Association, which is seeking the unification of efforts, the consolidation of ties and the exchange of experiences among Africa Nations. African Federation of Contractors was born in Cairo, Capital of Egypt in May 2006 with 30 African Nations including Ghana. Mr. Chairman, to facilitate the federation activities, Executive Bureau was formed which represents five regions of Africa, north, south, east, west and central. Mr. Chairman, Ghana was elected to the Executive Bureau in June last year to represent West Africa alongside Niger. AFCCA is planning to achieve many objectives including promoting construction profession by giving great importance to education, training and upgrading skills of different personnel. Mr. Chairman at the Exco meeting held in Johannesburg, South Africa in January this year, Morocco in its presentation revealed that it has built a $40m training Centre and would offer training to AFCCA members free of charge. Interested members would only pay their flight fares. Tuition, Accommodation and food would be provided. This offer will take off when it is ratified at the General Assembly in June this year in Cairo, Egypt. South Africa and Egypt also has extended invitations to member Nations for Training purposes. Mr. Chairman, AFCCA is also seeking observers’ status at the AU. It has also applied to join the International Federation of Contractors. When these are achieved, there would be great opportunity for member countries Associations to be strengthened and well positioned. Mr. Chairman, at South Africa Exco meeting, Malawi offered to host the Exco meeting in January, 2014. It would interest you to know that Ghana has also offered to host the Exco meeting in January, 2015. Mr. Chairman, it is worth noting that ABCECG owes AFCCA an amount of $10,000. This is unpaid dues for the past five years. We are therefore humbly appealing to all members who haven’t honored their dues obligation to do so by end of May this year. The next AGM is coming off in June this year and we will be required to pay our dues. Mr. Chairman Africa is the fastest growing region in the world today and at the core of that growth is infrastructure development. I therefore urge all of you in the Construction Industry to build and keep building your capacity for growth and sustainable development in the industry. Finally, in drawing the curtain down, I wish to comment on the Chinese Contractors involvement in our Construction Industry. The Construction industry is made up of fragmented professional groups and associations with no uniform body to formalize and enforce standards and practices. This situation in the construction industry is worsened by the influx of Chinese Contractors. Much as we need foreign contractors to augment our efforts and to transfer technology, the Chinese contractors need to be regulated. They use ABCECG Collective Agreement without recourse to the Association. We need them to join our Association so that we can harmonize in the delivery of our products. CONCLUSION Mr. Chairman in conclusion we would admonish Government to take critical look at the Construction Industry which contributes about 11% to GDP. Government should kindly take steps to establish a Regulator to harmonize the sector. ABCECG is seeking for a regulatory framework that would play Regulatory, Development, and Advisory roles. Government must take critical look at financing of projects it awards. This will enhance early completion of projects and the expected benefits would start impacting on the economy. Another critical area is delay in payments. The effect of these delayed payments are well known to all stakeholders especially Government. Let me emphasize here that contractors who have not received payment from GETFUND and the Ministry of Finance are in deplorable state; stressed, confused sick and incapable of doing anything. As a matter of urgency we request Government to redeem contractors from their predicament by paying us NOW. The promise to pay are numerous and no more relevant. Thank you all, Long Live Ghana, Long Live ABCECG. PRESENTED BY MARTINS KWASI NNURO NATIONAL PRESIDENT
Posted on: Sat, 15 Jun 2013 19:45:50 +0000
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