Minority Members of Parliament (MPs) say an amount of GHS4.717 billion which was injected into the road sector since January 2009 has become waste.
According to them, it was very disappointing to have most of “our roads bedevilled with potholes, corrugated gravel surface and bushy roadsides among other defects under the watch of the John Mahama led-National Democratic Congress (NDC) despite the huge sums of money pumped into the road sector.”
The minority MPs made this disclosure at a press conference in Accra yesterday.
Speaking on the theme; “The True State of the Country’s Road Network and Its Administration,” Minority spokesperson on Roads and Highway, Hon. Kofi Owusu Aduomi, said whilst over 42% of the country’s road networks were in good condition as at the end of December 2008, the figure dropped to 35% as at the end of December 2015.
He explained that the NDC had a very tall list of road projects (over 2000), and the funds released annually were spread thinly on the projects, thus making no significant impact on their (roads) physical progress.
Hon. Owusu Aduomi lamented that “indeed the performance of the Mills-Mahama administration on the road sector from January 2009 – date is bizarre and catastrophic to say the least.”
He was emphatic that the state of the roads had not witnessed any quantitative and qualitative improvement since 2008.
“Recognisably, however, the country has spent humongous amounts to achieve very little in the road sector,” Hon. Owusu Aduomi added.
The minority MPs however, urged the government to cleaning up the mess by opting for first, to concentrate on the completion of the numerous road and bridge projects (over 2000) which are on-going by appropriately limiting award of new ones.
He said it was therefore important that the current government weans itself from its love for sole sourcing which has become the order of the day and restricted tendering methods of procurement and allow for open competitive tendering on at least 80% of all projects.
These, according to him, will enable progress of projects at various sites to speed up, so that completion periods do not move far beyond contractual completion dates, and as well reduce huge amounts paid on contractors’ invoices as fluctuation.
“Finally, the government ought to take note that road development should be in tandem with its maintenance,” he emphasized.
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