The Ministry of Roads and Highway has called on Ghanaians to ignore calls by the Members of Parliament of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) demanding the revocation of the $570m Accra-Tema Motorway expansion contract.
The Ministry said the concerns raised by the caucus do not “represent the accurate status of the contract”.
The contract was signed between the government of Ghana and the South African firm, Mota – Engil.
The deal is for the expansion of the Accra-Tema Motorway into both three-lane and two-lane stretches.
The spokesperson for the NDC caucus on roads, Kwame Agbodza said the $570 million contracts were solely sourced without basis and should be terminated.
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He said: “So we are telling the government, stop this process, Article 181 have been ignored.”
“The top five Ghanaian road contractors can do this at ease and the benefit will be better for Ghanaians,” the NDC MP added.
But the Ministry of Roads and Highway in a statement signed by the sector Minister, Kwasi Amoako-Attah said after failed attempts by the previous NDC Government in procuring the said works to other foreign contractors, the government undertook a transparent and competitive process between 2017 and 2020, using Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangements to select the Contractor.
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“The attention of the Ministry of Roads and Highways has been drawn to a Press conference by the NDC Caucus in Parliament during their Press Conference on Wednesday, January 13, 2021, calling for the abrogation of the Accra – Tema Motorway expansion Contract signed between the Government of Ghana and Mota-Engil Engenharia E Construcao Africa S.A. The Ministry wishes to state without equivocation that the assertions and conclusions made by the NDC caucus in Parliament do not represent the accurate status of the contract,” it said.
It further explained that “the Accra-Tema Motorway has exceeded its design life since it was constructed in 1964. The scope of the project includes expansion of the lanes, new interchanges, and remodeling of the Tetteh Quashie interchange to remove traffic bottlenecks on the corridor for the benefits of road users.”
