Academic activities at the Odoben Senior High School in the Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa District have come to a standstill after a contractor locked up an eight-unit classroom block over unpaid debt.
The contractor, Kofi Gyansah, Chief Executive Officer of Rollga Construction Limited, said the school’s Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) awarded him the contract in 2010 but has since failed to pay him for the work done.
Despite the facility being about 90 percent complete, the school has reportedly been using it since 2012 without settling the outstanding payment.
According to Mr. Gyansah, “every effort to retrieve my money yielded no positive results. They keep giving one excuse after the other.”
He explained that the introduction of the Free SHS policy and the subsequent dissolution of Parent-Teacher Associations may have contributed to the delay in payment.
“The contract was awarded to me by the PTA, but the government dissolved the association after introducing the Free SHS policy, and I was expecting the government to absorb the debt, but that didn’t happen. So last year I tried to lock the facility, but government officials pleaded that I should wait until after the elections and they’d pay me. Yet I have not been paid a dime as we speak,” he said.
While he did not disclose the exact amount owed, Mr. Gyansah described the sum as “several millions of Ghana cedis.”
The contractor has now taken control of the building and cordoned it off, halting lessons for hundreds of students.
He also warned that he would take legal action against the school authorities if they attempt to break into the building or continue using it.
“They have used the building, which is over 90 percent complete, since 2012. That itself is illegal, so I am not expecting them to go back into it until I am paid; otherwise, I’ll institute legal action against the school authorities for trespassing,” he told Citi News.
The construction of the eight-unit classroom block had significantly boosted the school’s admission capacity, increasing enrollment from about 200 to over 1,800 students and enabling the introduction of additional academic programmes.
