Road contractors fed on contracts for years without completing projects – Alhassan Suhuyini

The Deputy Minister of Roads and Highways, Alhassan Suhuyini, has revealed that some road contractors have been benefiting from government contracts for years without completing the projects, describing a cycle of delayed payments, accumulating interest and contract renegotiations that he says has driven up the cost of roads.

Speaking on Eyewitness News on Friday, September 18, 2026, Suhuyini said the practice had contributed to Ghana spending significant amounts on road infrastructure without seeing corresponding improvements in completed projects.

He said some contractors would begin a project, execute only a small portion of the work and submit certificates for payment, which would then accumulate interest when the government delayed settling them.

“You will realise that there seemed to have been a scheme, you know, where people fed on road contracts for years without ever finishing a particular road that they were on,” he said.

Suhuyini explained that a contractor could receive a GH¢5 million contract for a two-kilometre road, execute work worth about GH¢1 million and submit a certificate. If payment was delayed, he said, the amount owed could increase through interest.

The contractor could then use a subsequent payment to undertake some additional work, raise another certificate and continue the cycle, while the road remained unfinished.

He said contractors could also return to government after several years to renegotiate contract rates because the prices of construction materials and other inputs had increased.

“One project, you find a contractor on it, constantly getting interest on delayed payment and getting the contract renegotiated for its price to go up,” he said.

According to Suhuyini, the result was that government could end up paying several times the original cost of a project without obtaining the completed road.

“A road that should cost you 1 million Ghana cedis will end up costing you about GHC5 million, and you may not even have the road,” he said.

He said the Roads and Highways Ministry was now seeking to change what he described as a longstanding culture within the sector by insisting that contractors complete projects within the agreed timelines and budgets.

“We want projects started and completed within time and on budget,” Suhuyini said.

He said the ministry was also strengthening monitoring and supervision to ensure contractors remained on site and worked according to approved programmes and schedules.

Suhuyini cited a road project in the Western North Region as an example of the impact of closer supervision.

He said the project had recorded only two per cent progress six months after the contract was awarded, when ministry officials first visited and raised concerns about the pace of work.

After the ministry intervened and set new timelines, he said, a subsequent inspection three months later showed progress had increased from two per cent to 21%.

“It tells you that supervision has been a problem in the past and also that making it clear what you want from the contractor hasn’t been the case in the past,” he said.

He said the ministry would continue monitoring projects to ensure contractors deliver according to their contractual obligations.