The Minority in Parliament has lashed out at the government for awarding a whopping 3,488 kilometers of cocoa road projects under sole-sourcing procurement arrangement.
The cost of the contract has been quoted at GH¢ 11.5 billion cedis.
Responding to a question on the floor of Parliament, the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, said under the current New Patriotic Party administration, 286 cocoa road contracts have been committed for construction.
This, he said, was a total length of 4,465.89km since 2019 at a cost of GH¢13.6 billion, adding that they are made up of 258 feeder roads and 28 trunk/highway roads.
The minister said a total of 177 road projects were procured under single-source tendering procedures; 150 projects came under the Department of Feeder Roads (2,218km) at a cost of GH¢4,286,831,982.61 and 27 projects under Ghana Highway Authority [1270km] at a cost of GH¢7,310,599,878.42).
Dr Akoto further disclosed that a total length of 328km was procured under National Competitive Tendering at a cost of GH¢496,040,098.91.
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Meanwhile, a total length of 651.0km was procured under Restricted Tendering procedures at a cost of GH¢1,577,790,213.89.
But addressing the press, the Minority spokesperson on Roads and Transport, Governs Kwame Agbodza, said he was shocked the government was awarding contracts through sole-sourcing after it criticised the Mahama administration of the same practice.
The Adaklu Member of Parliament also accused the government of inflating the cost of cocoa road projects under the Akufo-Addo administration.