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The New Patriotic Party Minority in Parliament yesterday exposed the lies and propaganda of the Mahama/Amisah Arthur-led NDC government in the road sector.

The group also lashed out at the government over its gross mismanagement in the road sector, saying the administration, maintenance and development of the nation’s roads by the NDC government is equally as poor as the other sectors of the country’s economy.

The NPP noted that the road network under the watch of the NDC-led government had deteriorated as a result of poor, inadequate and untimely maintenance interventions whilst those being upgraded or rehabilitated to bituminous surfacing are progressing at an unacceptably slow pace.

At a press conference addressed by the minority ranking member on the transport committee, Kwadwo Owusu Aduomi, the NPP observed that after almost 8 years in power, the NDC had failed to improve the surface condition of the road networks in the country, in spite of the huge amounts expended.

According to the opposition party, the nation’s road network stood at 37,321km at the end of fiscal year 2000. It increased to 56,057km at the end of 2004, moved further up to 67,291km at the close of year 2008, but it had since then increased slightly to 71,419km at the end of 2015, implying that whereas the NPP under Kufuor added 10% annually to the road network, the NDC only adds 0.8% annually since it took over power in 2009.

The opposition party also took issues with the government over the practice of sole sourcing in awarding contracts since its assumption in office in 2009, in spite of the fact that the country has in abundance expertise for construction and maintenance of roads and related structures.

According to the minority, this form of procurement is detrimental to the nation’s economy because such projects are awarded at high contract prices and no negotiations by the Road Agencies can prevent the contractor from making ‘disproportionally huge profit’ at the expense of the State.

In the view of the party, because this procurement method has failed to introduce competitiveness into selection of contractors for road works "the responsiveness, competitiveness and activeness of the road construction industry developed over the years have gradually been killed by this method of procurement."

"In the Public Procurement Authority’s report for 2010 fiscal year, at pages 51 to 74, out of 364 requests to procure road works by sole sourcing only 29 were turned down. This shows that 92% of the requests were approved. This was in the early stages of the ‘Better Ghana Agenda’," the party explained.

The NPP disclosed that the recently- awarded contracts for road works which is to be funded by COCOBOD was characterized by a lot of heated controversy because no single project went through the preferred competitive tendering process, just because it was “projects for sale” at the COCOBOD office.

On payment of contractors, the opposition party further disclosed that for the past seven years, it had been characterized by undue delay in paying for work done by contractors.

They explained that until the approval by Parliament of the Fuel Levy in December 2015, payments had been in arrears of between 12 and 24 months for projects funded by both Road Fund and Consolidated Fund.

"Contractually, for most of our road projects, payments are to be made within 90 days after the Engineer or his Representative has certified the work done. There are some projects which require payment to be made within 56 days after the contractor submits invoice to the Engineer or his Representative," the party noted.

As a result, most of the road contractors have had their cash flow seriously affected while many of them have lost the trust the lending institutions and creditors had in them.

The party further noted that as a result of poor payment, contractors get frustrated and angry and consequently, abandon projects sites.

They contended that "even the increase in the fuel levy has not yet impacted positively on payments to contractors who execute upgrading and rehabilitation works. More than 80% of on-going road projects have been abandoned in all the three executing road agencies, especially those under Road Fund."

They further lamented: "The stress which our contractors have gone through since January 2009 has contributed to the illness and untimely deaths of some of them. The capacity of most road contractors has drastically gone down and the situation has resulted in the gradual collapse of the country’s road construction industry. As a consequence, roads in Ghana now have to be sole sourced to a Burkinabe contractor!"

The opposition NPP recounted the days of the Kufuor-Aliu Mahama regime where payment for work never exceeded four months arrears for upgrading and rehabilitation works whilst that of routine maintenance works hardly went beyond three months arrears.

They disclosed that as at the end of July 2016, for Road Fund financed projects, the government owed GHS184,602,006 whilst there existed an outstanding bill of GHS501,213,182 for road projects financed from the Consolidated Fund.

Again, the government at the end of July 2016 expended GHS407, 323,037 on Road Fund projects and not less than GHS598, 597,480 on Consolidated Fund.

According to the NPP, as a result of the undue delay in paying for work done, contractors are compelled to raise invoices for interest on all amounts that are delayed for payment in accordance with the conditions that govern the contracts, and, therefore, most of the projects, become very expensive.

"Consequently the cost effectiveness of the projects are eroded. For example, the NDC-led government expended huge sums of money in the road sector, specifically, US$1,929.13 million from January 2009 – January 2013, but achieved very little. Only 1190 km of road got tarred from January 2009 to January 2013 with this huge amount whereas NPP-led administration from January 2005 to January 2009 expended US$1282.56 million and tarred 3875 km of roads,” the NPP disclosed.

It added, "In other words, the NPP used about 66% of the amount spent by the NDC to do about five times the stretch of road done by the NDC!! This means that if the NPP had the amount of US$1929.13 million which the NDC expended between 2009 – 2013 the NPP would have done 1955 km more, ie. done 5830 km and not the abysmal 1190 km done by the NDC.”