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The Minister of Roads and Highways has initiated a validation process to determine the government’s actual indebtedness to road contractors.
To this end, the sector Minister, Kwame Governs Agbodza, has instructed officials from the Ministry, the Department of Urban Roads, the Feeder Roads, the Ghana Highways Authority, and the Road Fund to provide data on all Interim Payment Certificates (IPCs) in the system.
He noted that the information available to him indicated that the current outstanding amount was estimated to be close to GH¢40 billion.
He made the call at a meeting with roads contractors in Accra yesterday.
The meeting sought to afford the new minister firsthand information on challenges of the contractors towards finding a common ground to address such issues as well as introduce himself and share his vision with the major players in the road sector towards soliciting their support to address the challenges facing the ministry.
Mr Agbodza further emphasised the need to verify this amount and work collaboratively with the contractors, officials of the Ministry and the consultants to resolve any outstanding debts to ensure sustainable implementation of the projects.
“One of my main responsibilities is to work with you – contractors, staff of my Ministry and its agencies and consultants to find out whether we actually owe that amount of money. If we owe, how do we work together to resolve that and going forward how we ensure that projects are sustainable,” he stressed.
The discussions focused on de-capping the Road Fund, debt sustainability in the road sector, judicious use of scarce resources available to the Ministry, negotiation on payment of interest on delayed payments and the re-introduction of road tolls to generate more revenue to fund road projects.
Mr Agbodza noted that allocations by successive governments to the Roads Ministry did not correspond with the demands from the public for road infrastructure.
He, therefore, indicated that in the coming days, the government would organise a national dialogue on “how to fund roads in our country, from our own resources.”
“Because surely when you make a proposal that you need GH¢16 billion to carry out your activities and then GH¢3 billion is approved for you, obviously, what it means is that you can’t carry out many of the things you want to do,” he noted.
Contractors present at the meeting raised concerns about delayed payments, bureaucratic bottlenecks, and the rising cost of construction materials.
They, however, expressed optimism about the Minister’s proactive approach and his commitment to fostering a collaborative relationship with the private sector.
The government’s renewed focus on road development is seen as a critical step toward achieving its broader agenda of resetting the country to improve the living standards for all Ghanaians.
BY LAWRENCE VOMAFA-AKPALU
