Contractors Demand Payment for Work Done

The Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Mrs. Akon Eyakenyi has assured contractors that are being owed by the Ministry that payments for work done will be made to them as soon as money is received from the Federal Ministry of Finance. She was addressing some contractors who had done some work in the Ministry who were in the Ministry today to protest what they claimed was non-payment for work done.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mr George A. Ossi who stood in for the Minister, invited representatives of the contractors for a dialogue in his office where he appealed to them to state their cases in a calm atmosphere so that the solutions they seek will be approached with decorum.

The contractors stated that they had been informed that while payment for work done in 2014 was paid for, some of them had not received any payment even though they had executed work between 2010 and 2013. Responding, the Permanent Secretary thanked them for being orderly and not riotous but explained that money that was released in the past came with the specific instruction that contractors who executed jobs relating to the zonal intervention projects in 2014, be paid.

He also informed them that no money has been received from the Ministry of Finance for the jobs that they did. He assured them that once money is received, they will be duly informed with a view to paying them, adding that his office was opened at all times and that he was ready to provide information regarding their payment if and when the need arises. He advised them to form a group for ease of communication between them and the ministry.