Only 44% of Big Push projects awarded through sole sourcing - Roads Minister tells Parliament

The Minister of Roads and Highways, Governs Kwame Agbodza, has told Parliament that only 44 per cent of all the major contracts included in the “Big Push” programme were awarded on a sole-sourcing basis, and not what had been published by an online portal.

He said the ministry awarded over 400 different advertised contracts through open competitive bidding, which he described as unprecedented.

“This is because the records show that from 2017 to 2024, almost all projects that the ministry carried out were sole-sourced,” the minister said.

Giving an update on the status of the implementation of the “Big Push” infrastructure programme in Parliament yesterday, Mr Agbodza said, given the scale, urgency and national importance of the national project, a mix of procurement methods was employed in accordance with the law.

“It will, therefore, be mischievous for any right-thinking member of society to conclude that the Ministry of Roads and Highways only procured works through sole sourcing,” he said.

No scandal

The minister stated that in the implementation of the Big Push programme, Parliament exercised continuous oversight, with questions answered regularly on the floor of the House.

Independent professional bodies, he said, validated the project cost, while procurement processes complied with the established legal framework.

Mr Agbodza explained that there was no abuse of the sole sourcing programme.

“Indeed, no procurement law or any other law has been breached, and definitely, there is no scandal,” he said.

The minister pointed out that the current government had not awarded over GH¢70 billion worth of work under the Big Push programme.

He said GH¢54 billion was for new works and that 23 projects were inherited, costing another GH¢14.8 billion.

“I say today as a minister that almost the GH¢110 billion worth of projects inherited were all procured through sole sourcing,” he said.

Mr Agbodza said there was spurious information online that 76 per cent of the projects were sole-sourced.

“It is also false as only about 44 per cent of those projects were procured through sole sourcing,” he said.

“And I state on record, Mr Speaker, we are making progress as a House and as a country to make sure that much of our procurement is done competitively,” he said.

He said those who claimed to have done the so-called analysis based on data the ministry submitted to them freely did not help the country.

“Because if they did due diligence, they would have known that those percentages they put out were pure fabrications and false,” he said.

The minister said the government had taken steps to improve the procurement process.

He added that he supported the fact that the Suame interchange should be procured through sole sourcing because “it was urgent and we needed to do it”.

“When the Motorway was awarded to a foreign company and the company could not raise the financing, I was one of the first people to say, let us terminate the work and get a Ghanaian contractor to do it.

“In this House, we also agreed that the project should be awarded on sole sourcing to the contractor Maripoma,” he said.

“President Mahama is not in the business of skewing anything to disadvantage the people of Ghana.

“Big Push projects are on site, they are ongoing and shall be completed on schedule and on budget,” he said and tabled all the advertisements of the over 400 projects that were competitively awarded.

Heavy investment 

Mr Agbodza told the House that President Mahama dedicated the first two years of the “Big Push” programme to address the unprecedented, deplorable state of the road network.

He said through the Big Push infrastructure programme, launched in 2025, the government was investing heavily in repairing critical roads, upgrading key economic corridors, creating jobs and reducing the cost of doing business across all 16 regions.

He said the programme placed strong emphasis on Ghanaian contractors and workers, helping to strengthen local technical expertise in the construction sector.

Having received strong support from Parliament, he said the House had approved nearly GH¢50 billion for those multi-year road and bridge projects.

He told the House that currently, there were over 2000 kilometres of roads in all 16 regions undergoing extensive transformation.