Road contractors still owed 3.69 billion GHC – Report

General News on Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Source: citinewsroom.com

2019-01-22

The Ghana Road Contractors Association lamented that the government has not settled the debts of its members.

A report by the parliamentary committee on roads and transport showed that the government owed more than 3.69 billion GHC to road contractors for projects financed from the consolidated fund and the road fund.

Although the government has paid over $ 2.2 billion in arrears, the delay in settling outstanding debt is affecting the construction sector.

In an interview with Citi News, president of the badociation, Daniel Agro hinted that the government was treating them unfairly.
"If banks collapse because of the money that we owe them, what about those of us who owe money? Many of us are dead and most of our equipment is down. I doubt that the actions we took against them as a group put them under pressure, "he said.

Road contracts worth 6.5 billion G ¢ attributed since 2017 – Amoako Atta

Despite these concerns, the Minister of Roads and Roads, Kwesi Amoako Atta, told the Parliament in 2018 that the Akufo-Addo government had since January 2017 pbaded road contracts amounting to 6.5 billion Ghanaian cedis.

This sum covers 258 roads and 20 bridge projects, totaling just over 3,000 kilometers.

The sector minister said the Ghanaian road authorities, the feeder roads department and the urban roads department were responsible for the implementation of the projects.

"The ministries through their agencies have allocated 258 different road projects across the country. This represents a little more than 3000 km and 20 different bridges for an estimated cost of 6.5 billion Ghc. "

"We will heavily invest in roads, other infrastructure."

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta also announced in the 2019 budget statement that the government would invest heavily in road, rail and air transport from a variety of sources.

As is often done in many budget submissions, the minister has listed a number of roads to be built in almost all the ten regions of the country.

As usual, many routes that have never been completed, although mentioned in previous budget submissions, have been mentioned again.

This commitment was made at a time when many road users across the country have expressed anger against the government for the state of their roads.

"Mr President, infrastructure, whether hard or soft, is the backbone of economic development and growth, and a source of jobs and wealth for the majority of people. As a rapidly changing global marketplace, traditional infrastructure such as electricity, transportation and logistics, water and sanitation, roads, highways and railways combined with new and largely flexible infrastructure, such as the digitization of public services, to enable emerging economies as our path of development to prosperity, our government is committed to launching an integrated infrastructure development program across the country that will goods, food and people from one place to another, which will create jobs and prosperity while optimizing resources for Ghana. position Ghana as a hub for transport, energy and logistics in the region. "