CONSTRUCTION work on the Sofoline Interchange in Kumasi has stalled following the decision by the contractors, China Gio Construction Limited, to send the entire Ghanaian workers home because they do not have the money to pay them.
The company said the government had not paid them for work completed so far, and the company had no alternative than to ask the workers to go home.
Only the skeletal Chinese staff of the company are currently at post.
Already the project is behind schedule, and many residents in Kumasi have expressed concern about the snail pace at which the project is being executed.
The decision to send the workers home appeared to have heightened suspicion that the entire road project could suffer delay in completion.
The Kumasi Metropolitan Roads Director, Mr Theodore Quaye, confirmed that the contractors had complained about the delay in receiving payment for work done.
He told the Daily Graphic yesterday that the management of the company claimed they did not have money to pay the Ghanaian workers and have asked them to go home until government pays for work done so far.
The company, he said, had prepared certificates for completed works but money was yet to be released to pay them.
Mr Quaye, however, indicated that officials in Accra were doing everything possible to pay the contractor to enable work to resume fully.
“I have had assurances from my bosses and there is every indication that the contractor will be paid in due course,” he said.
Mr Quaye also refuted allegations in Kumasi that the drawings for the Sofoline Roundabout-Abuakwa road had been altered from the original six-lane to four because the government claimed it had no money for the original project.
According to him, the project still remained six-lane and nothing would be done to change it.
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