No wrongdoing in Big Push contracts - Report
A high-level presidential investigation into the award of contracts under the Big Push Infrastructure initiative has found that the Ministry of Roads and Highways did not breach any procurement rules, the Daily Graphic can exclusively report.
However, President John Dramani Mahama has accepted four sweeping reforms to strengthen Ghana’s public procurement framework.
The probe, ordered by the President in April and conducted by Senior Presidential Advisor, Dr Valerie Esther Sawyerr, found that the ministry acted strictly within the Public Procurement Act and obtained all requisite approvals.
It also revealed that single-sourced Big Push contracts represent barely 4.58 per cent of all road contract awards by the ministry.
The report, dated May 22, 2026, was triggered by media investigations by the Media Foundation for West Africa and the Fourth Estate, which had alleged abuse of single-sourcing methods.
The Presidency said the President’s swift intervention reflected his commitment to transparency, fiscal discipline, and institutional accountability.
The numbers
Out of 1,441 contracts awarded by the ministry under the current administration, 1,301 of them, representing 90.28 per cent, were procured through open and competitive tendering.
Under the Big Push initiative, 140 contracts were awarded in total. Of these, 66 were single-sourced, 51 went through restricted tendering, and 23 were legacy projects inherited from the previous administration.
“The data and basis for adopting the single source procedure refutes any claim that MRH (Ministry of Roads and Highways) acted in total disregard of the President’s directive on fiscal prudence,” the report stated.
Urgency, security justified
The report justified the limited use of single sourcing on grounds of deteriorating road conditions, national security vulnerabilities along critical border corridors, and the risk of cost escalation.
Standard competitive tendering for major infrastructure projects typically takes between 10 and 15 months, a delay the report said would have undermined government’s promise of rapid infrastructure delivery.
Key corridors cited include the Dambai Bridge in the Oti Region, the Wa-Han and Tumu-Hamile roads along the Burkina Faso frontier, and forest-zone roads prone to illegal mining and cross-border crime in the Western Region.
It further emphasised that Commitment Authorisation letters from the Ministry of Finance also imposed strict safeguards on all Big Push contracts, including a prohibition on price variations, advance mobilisation payments, and indexation to foreign currency.
Allegations dismissed
The investigation dismissed claims that some contractors were unqualified.
The report said Growth 82 Global Limited, singled out in earlier media reports, holds a valid A1B1 classification certificate.
The report also corrected the record on the Dodo Pepesu-Nkwanta road contract, clarifying that it was awarded through restricted tendering, not single sourcing, after five companies submitted competitive proposals.
Claims about contractors with few registered workers were equally debunked.
The report said Build Managers Ltd, for instance, had 20 workers on its SSNIT clearance as of January 2025, while Sanam Ghana Ltd had 25 workers on its earliest certificate and 26 on its most recent, dated April 2026.
The widely reported misspelling of “Growth 82 Global Ltd” as “Groth 82 Global Ltd” on the ministry’s website was found to be a typographical error, with no evidence of deliberate intent to evade scrutiny. The ministry has since corrected it.
President orders safeguards
Although no wrongdoing has been established, President Mahama has accepted the report’s four key recommendations to strengthen Ghana’s procurement architecture.
Effective immediately, all public-sector single-source contracts above a prescribed threshold must obtain a Value for Money Certificate from the newly established Value for Money
Office, created by an Act passed on March 26, 2026, and assented to by the President on May 11, 2026.
Cabinet approval will also be mandatory before any high-value single-source contract is awarded.
The Ministry of Finance and the Attorney-General have been directed to fast-track legislation restricting single-source procurement to genuinely exceptional circumstances.
The report further recommended that all single-source contract awards must be published on a centralised open-government e-procurement portal, including verified ultimate beneficial owners.
