GANTA, Nimba – Contractors have resumed installing culverts along the streets of Ganta after a break lasting several months.

In January this year, the projects were suddenly halted, and no further information was provided to the public until citizens raised concerns.

However, the county’s administration has finally provided reasons for the halt. On the Voice of Gompa’s ‘Have Your Say’ show, Dorr Cooper, the Nimba County Assistant Superintendent for Development, said the project has resumed with immediate effect.

Cooper suggested that the formalities required to initiate payments of funds to contractors were to blame. He said the temporary suspension of the project was because the contractors are the ones pre-financing the work and they had not completed the first phase to trigger their first payments from the county administration.

He said that the stage one of the culverts installation work has to do with the technical work of digging the foundation. He noted that at the conclusion of the first phase, a formal request will be made to the office of the County Development Superintendent for the first payment.

“When this request is done, we have to come to the site to evaluate the quality of work that is being done at this stage and then file in our report to the office of the Superintendent for payment to the contracting company,” Cooper said.

He informed the public that with all of that bureaucracy time was being procrastinated; thereby bringing that project to a temporary standstill.

“We had to go through all of those things. And with that, time was being wasted,” He said.

Cooper revealed that the first payment is now being made to the contractors, and all is set for the culverts project to restart.

“Last night I spoke with the mayor, and he told me that the contractors had completed the procurement of their materials and are now in Ganta to start the work,” Cooper said.

The projects were financed by the Swedish International Development Agency, along with the Nimba County Administration, which is funding through the Social and County Development Funds.

Featured photo courtesy of Arrington Ballah