Reveals Staggering Gh40Bn Road Debt Left By Akuffo Addo/Bawumiah Gov’t
From news Desk
Roads and Highways Minister Kwame Governs Agbodza on Tuesday dropped a political bombshell in Parliament, revealing that the Mahama administration has settled more than GHS 11 billion in road sector arrears inherited from the previous Akufo-Addo government the largest such clearance in the country’s history even as he pushed back hard against accusations of procurement infractions under the flagship Big Push programme.
The disclosure came as the Minister mounted a spirited defence of the infrastructure initiative, which critics have slammed as a sole-sourcing juggernaut. But it was the staggering debt figure that seized the chamber’s attention: total arrears left behind in the roads sector by the outgoing administration in 2024, Agbodza said, exceeded GHS 40 billion.
“Many projects we inherited lacked commitment authorisation and were not subjected to competitive procurement processes,” the Minister told the House. “That contributed to arrears exceeding GHS 40 billion.
This government has since paid over GHS 11 billion to clear part of these debts the largest arrears settlement in recent history.”
The revelation cast the ongoing controversy over the Big Push in a sharply political light, positioning the current government as a cleanup crew forced to navigate a legacy of fiscal mess while being attacked for the very methods it now employs to deliver roads.
Agbodza rejected claims that the Big Push programme is built on abusive sole sourcing, describing such assertions as “mischievous.” He disclosed that only 44 percent of major contracts under the initiative were awarded through sole sourcing, while more than 400 contracts went through open competitive tendering.
“It is therefore misleading for any right thinking person to conclude that the Ministry only relies on sole sourcing,” he said.
He defended the mix of procurement methods as a lawful necessity given the urgency of Ghana’s degraded road network, arguing that rigid adherence to lengthy competitive processes “would have significantly delayed critical projects and worsened economic hardship.”
The Minister also revealed that 23 major road projects worth GHS 14.88 billion originally awarded under the previous administration but abandoned for lack of funding have been absorbed into the Big Push and refinanced.
They include high-profile projects like the Suame Interchange, Ofankor-Nsawam Road, and Adenta-Dodowa Road, all of which had become symbols of stalled infrastructure under the Akufo-Addo government.
To counter concerns about cost overruns, Agbodza outlined a suite of oversight measures, including in-house surveying and design by state agencies that he said saved “billions of cedis,” independent value-for-money assessments of contractor proposals, and a strict payment-by-delivery system.
“We have established a system where no contractor will be paid without delivering measurable work,” he stated.
He also dismissed “cost per kilometre” comparisons as simplistic, noting that such analyses ignore engineering complexity and associated infrastructure like interchanges and bridges.
With the Big Push covering over 2,000 kilometres of roads across all 16 regions, structured around 12 economic corridors divided into 54 lots, the Minister appealed for public support.
“There is no abuse of sole sourcing. It is the exception, not the norm. No procurement law has been breached, and there is no scandal,” Agbodza declared.
“The Big Push is delivering the infrastructure Ghanaians demanded. We must not allow misinformation to derail it.”
By spotlighting the GHS 11 billion debt clearance, the Minister appeared intent on shifting the narrative from procurement tactics to fiscal responsibility and on reminding Ghanaians of the financial wreckage his government says it inherited.
Whether the electorate will embrace that framing or continue to question the transparency of sole-sourced contracts remains an open question as the programme rolls on. But for now, the government has put the numbers and the blame squarely on the table.