Mahama Inflated Cost Of Cocoa Roads; We Audited Projects – NPP

The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has accused Mr John Mahama and his erstwhile administration of inflating the cost of cocoa roads projects started under his administration.

At a press conference on Monday, 5 October 2020, following a dare by Mr Mahama to the Akufo-Addo government to publish its audit report on the cocoa roads, the Director of Communication of the NPP, Mr Yaw Buaben Asamoa, said: “Far from what the NDC will want Ghanaians to believe, at no point within the current Government was a decision taken to neglect cocoa roads projects began under the previous administration.

Addressing a durbar of chiefs at Bopa in the Sefwi Akontombra District of the Western North Region recently, Mr Mahama said: “They [NPP] should tell us the findings: which contractors were paid for work they had not done? But there is no such report. Because of politics, you abandon the roads and now that it’s close to elections, you’re now scrambling to fix roads. Meanwhile, you had four years to do so”.

The NPP, however, responded that “in order to deepen accountability and protect the public purse, as well as ensure value for money, due diligence had to be exercised”, thus, the suspension of the projects for an audit.

“Cocoa roads projects were suspended for an audit to be conducted, especially, after some anomalies which resulted in inflated costs of some of the contracts awarded by the previous government, were detected”, he explained.

According to the Adentan MP, “the suspension of the project allowed for a re-scoping and proper alignment of funds as well as open competitive bidding processes towards the award of new cocoa roads contracts”.

“It is important to state that the contractors who were awarded contracts by the previous administration and had genuine claims were promptly paid. During the 2017/2018 cocoa season, an amount of GHS497 million was paid to some of those cocoa roads contractors and another GHS414 million was subsequently paid in 2018/2019 cocoa season.

“Also, road projects awarded by the previous government that were near completion in 2017 were, as well, allowed to be completed by the contractors”, Mr Buaben Asamoa noted.

He said: “The records show that the Mahama-led government deviated from the original purpose and intent for the construction of cocoa roads”, adding: “There was a heavy concentration on the construction of highways and in some cases roads in non-cocoa growing areas”.

“A whopping 63% of the funds for cocoa roads was devoted to highways, 5% went to urban roads and the rest went to feeder roads. This situation has changed significantly.

“That is why today, the increase in tarred feeder roads across the cocoa-growing regions in Ghana can be as high nearly 40% in just under four years (37% in the Eastern Region, for example, from 34 km in 2016 to 466 km today”, Mr Buaben Asamoa explained.

He further said the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), “is, indeed, a curious man”, explaining: “He has shown some remarkable bravery in daring to speak on the contracts he and his spouse awarded for cocoa roads”.

“He is asking for the government to publish what is already public, the audit report of the said cocoa roads contracts. First of all, for John Mahama, his habit was to award contracts even if he had no clue how to pay for them.”

“Cocoa roads contracts awarded by the previous government, constituting 229 projects, amounted to some GHS5.1 billion. This was at a time when funds available to pay for road construction in total was only GHS1.7 billion. Specifically, for cocoa roads, the approved annual mounts averaged GHS500 million for the Cocobod Infrastructural Development Trust Fund for the entire five-year period for the programme.

“Indeed, John Mahama committed GHS3.2 billion (64%) that he did not have to just 74 projects awarded by the Ghana Highway Authority – not the Department of Feeder Roads. The 131 projects under Feeder Roads was valued at just GHS1.5 billion. Again. The average cost per KM of trunk roads in the contract award was GHS2.5 million; more than double the KM cost of the feeder roads at GHS1.16m.

“The 140 contractors who were awarded the 229 contracts, none of the contracts went through a competitive tendering process. Not a single one. The cost per KM was much higher than the average cost of other government-sponsored road projects. For example, for the Preastea Samreboi Road, awarded to Asabea Engineering Ltd, the audit report found that it was inflated by 121.85%.

“This is a classic case of incompetent economic management, worsened by corruption. Also, several contractors were requesting payment for variation on contract amounts which were multiple times in excess of the initial contingency or variation amounts allocated”, the NPP said.

The party stressed that while the Mahama-led government “could not honour the payments of contracts they signed right from 2014/2015 cocoa season, they continued to sign additional contracts till 2017 when they left office, piling up dubious debt”.

---classfm