The speaker of parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho on Friday heavily criticised the Roads and Transport Committee of Parliament for not exercising proper oversight on the Achimota-Ofankor highway project, resulting in an over-bloated contract that cost the nation far in excess of GH¢88 million in overruns.
The China Railway Group Corporation was given the contract in 2006 by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government at the cost of GH¢40.4 million to upgrade the 5.7km stretch of the road from Achimota to Ofankor from a single lane to a dual carriageway; but when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government took over power and the contract was repackaged in 2009, the sum ballooned to GH¢128 million – an increase of 217%.
The then Roads and Highway Minister, Joe Gidisu, also requested a BMW saloon car valued at $160,503 from the Chinese contractors to enable him inspect the project.
The Ghana Highway Authority also demanded the renovation of its CEO’s office by the same contractors.. Mr Doe Adjaho bore his heart out after some MPs had condemned the Roads Ministry for making unrelated expenditures in respect of the project, including the purchase of a BMW saloon car with a comprehensive insurance of $6,672 covering it.
The vehicle was later confiscated at the Castle by the late President Atta Mills.
The other unrelated expenses by the ministry were the payment of GH¢34,764 as allowances for 13 staff of the Ghana Highways Authority (GHA); backstopping at the head office of the GHA which cost GH¢50,000; renovation of GHA’s archive basement into offices as well as the renovation of the deputy CEO’s office which together cost GHر33,225; training of four staff of GHA at GIMPA at the cost GH¢11,264 and the participation of four staff in urban transportation course at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
The speaker said with such glaring over-expenditure, the Committee of Roads and Transport had failed parliament and the nation as a whole.
He said the usual argument that the committee was not well-resourced for members to effectively tour the project site and make their recommendations for action to be taken did not prevent it from making proper due diligence in approving of budget estimates which had a spillover from the preceding year’s estimates.
“You don’t need money to go round to be able to raise the red flag because every year, the committee recommends for appropriation of the budget for the ministry and in considering the estimates due diligence could have been done to detect such expenses outside the normal contract,” the speaker charged.
“In fact, all of us would have to take the blame – the engineers, those who did not follow procurement procedures and all those who approved of the project,” he noted.`
The majority chief whip, Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, said it was time the acquisition of luxurious vehicles to inspect projects was stopped because the nation is facing economic challenges.
According to him, pick-up vehicles must be acquired by the government and put in a pool for ministers to use to inspect various projects instead of buying luxurious vehicles for such inspection anytime a project is taking place.
The minority leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, had argued strongly about the executive deliberately incapacitating parliament by not providing money for committees to exercise their oversight responsibilities as constitutionally expected of them.
According to the minority leader, if the Committee on Roads and Transport had properly been resourced to carry out its mandated oversight role, all the wastes would have been avoided.
He said it is imperative for various committees of parliament to be given the necessary resources to enable them discharge their oversight functions judiciously.
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