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The hope of road contractors to secure new contracts this year has been dashed as the freeze on award of new contracts will remain in force, at least till the end of this year. Minister of Roads and Highways, Alhaji Amin Amidu Sulemani told 'The Finder' in an interview that the decision to freeze award of new road contracts was to enable government settle arrears owed contractors working on ongoing road projects. Explaining the rationale behind the freeze, he stated that some of the projects were at critical stages of construction and funds were needed to complete them. The Ministry of Roads and Highways has three key agencies that execute its projects. These are the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA), in charge of trunk roads or main arterials; the Department of Urban Roads (DUR), for urban roads; and the Department of Feeder Roads (DFR), for rural roads, including the cocoa access roads. New road projects are financed under the Consolidated Fund while road maintenance projects are serviced with funds accruing from the Ghana Road Fund Secretariat (GRFS) � which, he said, are not enough. Alhaji Sulemani said the ministry�s 2014 budgetary allocation would be used to pay contractors to complete ongoing projects.