Construction related environmental laws and policies in Ghana: a literature review

The Act 490 mandates the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Ghana to regulate the environment and ensure the implementation of government policies on the environment. The law mandates the EPA to ad infinitum improve and preserve the countries environment, while seeking solutions to global environmental issues. However by focusing only on large scale contracts, as is currently the case, the battle with the environment cannot be won through the EPA. Despite the existence of the EPA, there seem to be numerous environmental issues unaddressed. There is little knowledge about the existence of other environmental laws and how they could be incorporated into small, medium and large scale contracts in the public sector. The aim of this research was to identify and document environmental laws and legislation in Ghana with a view of making them a consideration in small and medium scale contracts through public procurement. A thorough literature review was conducted on environmental policies, laws and legislation in Ghana. Numerous laws, regulations and policies were identified, however, they were found to be scattered in various documents. The study recommended the training of procurement officers on ways to incorporate environmental laws into the procurement process, as well as the training of environmental officers as safeguard officers for public contracts.