Road contractors want Amoako Atta investigated over alleged 'pick and choose' payments, kickbacks, arbitrary cancelations

Roads Minister Kwasi Amoako Atta

Members of Concerned Road Contractors of Ghana are calling for thorough investigations of the sector Minister Kwasi Amoako Atta over alleged 'kuluulu.'

They are accusing the Minister of “discriminatory payments of road contractors from the road fund” and “arbitrary cancellation of the Ministry of Roads and Highways Classification Certificates for road contractors.”

The road contractors say they are extremely unhappy that the minister is always in the news claiming that he is paying contractors which puts undue pressure on them by their creditors. "This has resulted in the death of some contractors from their misery.”

The group is therefore calling on the President, the media, Parliament and CHRAJ to conduct forensic investigations into the work and conduct of the minister to ensure that sanity prevails in the road sector.

The group in a press statement also expressed worry about the irregular manner of payment of Road Fund contractors at the instance of the minister “contrary to the 1992 constitution of Ghana and the Road Fund Act, 1997 (Act 536) as amended by the Road Fund (Amendment) Act, 2016 (Act 909) and the resultant financial loss to the state.”

Pick and choose

The contractors also accused the Roads and Highways Minister of negatively influencing the work of the Road Fund Board with regards to the payment of contractors.

“The Hon. Minister is indulged in paying contractors at his own whims and caprices without any regard for due process and blatant disregard for the accepted practice of paying certificates in order of first come, first served basis. This practice of the minister is hugely inconsistent with the principles of equity which should guard all public officers in their duties”, the group noted in the statement.

The Road Contractors indicated that since Mr. Amoako-Atta took office, he has been paying contractors on “pick and choose basis.”

They stressed, “In most instances, very recent payment certificates which enter the Road Fund and honoured to the deliberate neglect of very old payment certificates at the Road Funs. Payments have become based on who can make links with Hon. Kwasi Amoako-Atta.

“What motivates this mode of payment by the minister are many and varied, corruption (i.e. kickbacks) not excluded. There are instances where for example, two weeks old payment certificates are paid by the minister to the neglect of payment certificates that have been more than three (3) years at the Road Fund without payments for no apparent reason.”

Middlemen

The press statement further alleged that the Minister’s behaviour has resulted in the phenomenon where middlemen try to arrange for payments for contractors in return for huge commissions, percentage or cut for facilitating the payment.

“There are instances where these middlemen demand 15% of values of payment certificates for payment to be effected and indeed payments are effected for those who comply with these terms. This is a cartel at work for their own interest unconcerned about the sufferings of contractors,” the statement noted.

According to the road contractors, the “minister has become a dictator, terrorizing everyone including some officials of the ministry. It seems there is no one to talk to him and he has become a law unto himself….”, they further observed.

Click here for full statement