Gov’t clears one billion cedis arrears to road contractors

Minister of Roads and Highways, Kwesi Amoako-Atta has disclosed that government has paid over one billion Ghana Cedis within the past 11 months to road contractors as outstanding arrears for work executed under the erstwhile administration.

The Road Minister added that the Government had also made arrangement to disburse another GHC120 million to road contractors whose arrears had been outstanding between two to five years.

Kwesi Amoako-Atta disclosed this at the swearing-in of a nine-member Ministerial Advisory Board of the Ministry of Roads and Highways in Accra.

He also explained that the Road Fund, which was supposed to receive an average between GHC70 to GHC80million every month, had not gotten the required amount due to a loan the previous government contracted from the United Bank of Africa (UBA) and therefore Government pays GHC67million every month to the Bank to service the loan at an interest rate of 30 percent, which would be completed by the end of August next year.

“We don’t want to default in payment in view of the financial consequences we may suffer, therefore we should be creative and innovative so that we can bring out ideas to deal with the road issues,” he stated.

The sector Minister, however, charged the new Board to bring their expertise and experiences on board to move the government’s agenda of ensuring quality roads across the country was realised.

“Ghana is 60 years old and if you travel abroad, you realised that we’re lagging behind in terms of road infrastructure so we need to do something about it,” he noted.

“So as members of the Board we must collectively ensure that our roads are in good shape and safe as well as ensuring value for money,” he said.

The members of the Board include; Kwabena Owusu-Aduom, a Deputy Minister of Roads and Highways, Godwin Joseph Brocke, the Chief Director of the Ministry of Roads and Highways and Mr Daniel Kow Brainoo, the National Vice President of the Progressive Road Contractors Association.

The rest are; Mr Ludwig A. Hesse, from the Ghana Institution of Engineers,  Kwadwo H. Osei-Asante, from the Ghana Institution of Surveyors, Frank A. Raji, the Director of Policy Planning, Budget, Monitoring and Evaluation of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, Amatus K. B. Deyang, the Director of Agricultural, Engineering and Services Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and Michael Ayesu, the Director in charge of External Resource Mobilisation of the Ministry of Finance.

 

primenewsghana.com/Ghana News