Contractors working on Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) projects are expected to hit the streets of Accra to demand money owed them by the government if they are not paid by 11am today [Tuesday].
The contractors have lamented that government owes them, over GHc 500 million spanning a period of six months and they believe a protest will get the President to listen to them.
One of the affected contractors who spoke to Citi News on behalf of his colleagues, Daniel Tanor, said the situation is crippling their businesses since most of them go for loans from the banks to pre-finance the projects.
He also said a number of the contractors were being hounded by banks and some suppliers because of their inability to pay debts.
“We have been able to find out that the Ministry of Finance has not given GETFund money to pay the contractors. We came to the conclusion that the only thing we can do is to demonstrate. If we do that the President will listen to us.”
“If they are not paid by 11 am on today [Tuesday] all GETFund contractors will hit the streets, move to the Presidency, that is the Flagstaff House. If we don’t see the President then we will go to his house,” Mr. Tanor said.
Managers of the GETFund have however blamed the Ministry of Finance for its inability to pay contractors who the Fund says it owes close to GHc 300 million.
The Deputy Administrator for GETFund, Stephen Baffoe, indicated that until the Ministry of Finance releases money to the Fund, they cannot pay the contractors.
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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana