The vice president of the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) Africa Mr. Rockson Dogbegan, has called for the establishment of an independent building oversight authority in Ghana to regulate Ghana’s construction industry. He said the establishment of the independent body would ensure high standard in the building sector as well as eliminate shoddy work. This will go along the way to stimulate economic growth in the country.
He was speaking during the official opening of a two-day seminar organized by the Heavy Machinery Delership and brought together stakeholders in the construction industry. He said despite the industry’s immense contribution to the county’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), it is faced with many challenges due to lack of regulation. During the seminar, a new construction machine, the MPH 122-2 stabilizer and recycler machine. The two are used in road rehabilitation and also serve as soil stabilizer
According to Mr. Dogbegah, an independent construction authority would help wipe out shoddy works associated with local industry players by building the capacity of construction firms and enriching professionalism and at the same time formulating policies for sustained industry development. “We have many high-rise buildings springing up, construction of roads and many development projects in the country. Anyone just gets up and because they know someone who can secure them a government contract they claim they are contractors,” he said.
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A research by Fugar et.al (2003) identified a number of challenges, attributed to absence of a formidable development regulatory body, shortage of financial resources, poor investment in human resource development, and minimal technological intake in the industry, lack of motivation for industry workforce and high degrees of employee mobility. Similar problems in other emerging economies like Singapore, India, Malaysia, South Africa and Indonesia prompted the establishment of regulatory agencies to oversee and supervise activities in the construction industry. He noted that countries that are in charge of their directly responsible for their regulation and development construction industries are comparatively making huge progress towards economic development
For a number of years, both industry practioners and academic have been championing for the state to set up a regulatory authority to oversee the industry
