Let’s read in between the lines (2)

This is the second part of the article by Tony Asare, a member of the Ghana Institute of Architects.

In the first part published on Tuesday, August 1, 2017, the writer refers to the statement attributed to the Minister of Works and Housing in which he said hired Ghanaian engineers would not want to do their work but cut corners.

While admitting that some engineers may be responsible for some of the shoddy work in the country, the writer lays some blame also on politicians and recommends some key areas that need to be looked at.

He noted that while engineers, architects, and other professionals could not be fully exonerated from shoddy and substandard work, it was important to identify other ”partners-in-crime.” Read on.

The affinity for foreign professionals is growing in Ghana, especially in the private sector. Some come along with various project funds and may possibly be part of funding conditions for projects. The laws of this country require that they partner with locally registered professionals so that they can make inputs on local building codes and regulations, as well as provide statutory concurrence and endorsements of documents for presentation for permit approvals. In Architectural Projects, for instance, there has been a huge influx of architects from all over the world.

This certainly enriches our landscape. However, there is an increase in temperate architecture and the effect on our services i.e. power demands due to poor ventilation that come with such designs and other demands inconsistent with our building codes. We cannot have an open door policy without a strong regulatory regime and that is what is worrying about the minister’s assertions.

• The minister mixed up the roles and responsibilities and this cannot be overlooked. We have always argued whether ministerial roles are principally managerial and policy that may not require a reasonable practical knowledge in those fields.

Article 78 (1) of the Constitution says that “Ministers of State shall be appointed by the President with the prior approval of Parliament from among members of Parliament or persons qualified to be elected as members of Parliament, except that the majority of Ministers of State shall be appointed from among members of Parliament”.

This is omnibus and lumps all ministers and their explicit roles together except the Attorney General whose roles are clearly spelt out in Article 88 (1-6).

As a country that needs to develop, we have failed to back our intent with our constitution. 

• “The Ministry has the overall responsibility for the initiation, formulation, implementation and co-ordination of policies and programmes for the systematic development of the country’s infrastructure requirements in respect of works, housing, water supply and sanitation, hydrology and flood control systems to ensure efficiency of the sector” (http://www.mwrwh.gov.gh/).

Although the minister has a team of Chief Directors and experts to work with, this system has neither been progressive nor ineffective and has to be reviewed.

• There are structural weaknesses in the supervising ministries that need to be addressed as well. The licensing agency for professionals fall under the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing (MWRWH). Unfortunately, most of the works are executed in other ministries such as Local Government and Rural Development under which the MMDAs fall, Highways etc. Generally, one would expect that these ministries should be able to vet faulting professionals and authorise sanctions. For instance, when the Melcom Shopping Mall collapsed in Achimota the investigations by the MMDAs and MLGRD should have revealed the professionals and contractors at fault and recommended sanctions from the MWRWH.

This calls for good coordination between these ministries. We, however, know that this takes forever to materialise. This is clearly a political decision to be made.

Hand of politicians

• The strong invisible hand of politicians is everywhere in the construction industry, especially in the execution of public works, especially at the MMDAs. The traditional leaders also fall in this same category and their word and influence is almost law. Staff are appointed to the various assemblies touting political affiliations instead of their objective to ensure that the laws are obeyed. We all see the resulting quality of the structures built by various assemblies and services rendered.

Some structures built by some assemblies have collapsed due to poor construction quality. They influence selection of contractors and push inordinate payments. This is gradually affecting morale and the quality of supervision by Engineers and Architects in the MMDAs and apathy is the order. Some staff are penalised and transferred for ensuring that the right thing is done. As long as these contractors flaunt their connections and contacts with political and traditional leaders, we should not expect the status quo to change and the blame on professionals would not matter.

• The assemblies also cannot go without blame. Permit applications are fraught with corruption and thievery in some assemblies. Development control has become private investments for poorly trained staff some with doubtful qualification that sometimes is embarrassing. Ghana will never win with this crucible of unacceptable practices, human resource, political influences, lack of compliances with regulations and best practices that has made other countries a beauty to experience. A frank debate is the way forward. A clean politician is certainly an oxymoron in our part of the world. A simple clean and honest blame sharing would have been candid in the discussions with the Engineers by our politicians. For once this issue has vividly been brought to the fore and we should not lose steam until something significant is done towards finding a solution. Let the community of construction participants have a frank debate. The stakeholders are truly many and they must all share the blame.

• The writer is a member of the Ghana Institute of Architects