Road Fund Rakes GH�1bn

Joe Gidisu, Minister of Roads and Highways, has announced that about GH�1.01 billion was generated by the Road Fund between 2000 and 2010. He said in 2010 a total of GH�182.0 million was realized from the fund�s various revenue sources compared to GH�136.0 million accrued in 2009. He explained that the relatively significant upward jump was due to the increases in road and bridge tolls, vehicle registration fees, road user fees and International Transit Fees. The Minister stated that GH�185 million had been projected for 2011 so as to meet part of the road maintenance budget of the agencies which depend on the fund to undertake maintenance programme and activities. The current capacity of the fund could sustain about 60 percent of the country�s road maintenance needs, he added. Nii Quaye Kumah, Deputy Minister of Roads and Highways read the sector minister�s speech at a public forum organised by the Ghana Road Fund Management Board under the theme: �Financing of Road Maintenance� for about 200 participants. They included road contractors, Municipal/District Chief Executives and members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Transportation at Sunyani. Hon. Gidisu expressed regret that despite the above-mentioned financial achievement the fund carried forward an indebtedness of GH�74.2 million from 2010 to 2011, explaining that the situation imposed 40 percent financing gap on the national road maintenance needs. Mr Gidisu said as part of the solution to the revenue short-fall, the government has been studying some recommendations made by the Ministry of Roads and Highways to make the fund more responsive to the road maintenance needs. He stressed that road construction and maintenance are very expensive ventures, noting that the cost of resurfacing one kilometer road was GH�135,000 whilst resealing cost GH�70,000 per kilometre. The Minister said in 2001 the national road network was about 39,000 kilometres but is now over 67,000 kilometres. He said the massive expansion has led to improvement in the road condition mix. 27 per cent good, 17 per cent fair and 56 per cent bad in 2001 became 41 per cent good, 27 per cent fair and 32 per cent bad at the end of 2008. George Aidoo, Director of Monitoring and Evaluation at Ghana Highway Authority, (GHA), who gave a presentation on behalf of Anthony Essilfie, Chief Director, GHA on the theme, �Ghana�s Road Programme and the Role of Maintenance,� identified a number of challenges facing that sector. They included not only inadequate logistics for project supervision but low delivery capacity of the local construction industry, thereby affecting the early completion of road projects and conversion of a large number of vehicles from the use of petrol to Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) on which no levy was charged, he stressed.