Kwame Governs Agbodza, Ghana’s Minister for Roads and Highways, shocked the country’s infrastructure sector on Thursday, June 5, 2025, when he disclosed in Parliament that a contractor had been paid close to $30 million for a road project that is only 1% physically finished.
Public indignation has been sparked by the Minister’s claim that the site has hardly been cleansed.
After being introduced with great enthusiasm, the project has essentially been shelved. Mr. Agbodza told the House that although the project’s official cost is $158,617,764, the contractor has already received about $29,648,180, even though the building site hasn’t even been cleared. This was a source of great displeasure.
The contractor’s present demand for an extra $14 million, allegedly as a settlement to end the contract and walk away with the money already disbursed, has made matters worse.
“As a Roads Minister, knowing that I owe Ghanaian contractors over GH¢21 billion for work they have genuinely done, it is quite disheartening that at the same time that we are unable to pay Ghanaian contractors, we have paid somebody $30 million. And the person is basically asking us that we should let him go with our $30 million,” Mr. Agbodza said, bemoaning the stark inequity in the way public resources are handled.
In order to recoup the money, he made it plain that the government will pursue all available legal options.
He promised Parliament, implying a hard attitude and potential lawsuit, “We shall be able to use the laws within our country to demand that $30 million worth of work is done, or we take the legal actions to ensure that we retrieve it.”
In June 2022, then-Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia ceremoniously commissioned the project.
Concerns regarding contract supervision, accountability, and value for money in Ghana’s public infrastructure projects have been rekindled by the revelation that such a large expenditure has only resulted in 1% progress, especially at a time when the nation is struggling with growing debt and urgent development needs.
Source: newsthemegh.com