<<Print>>The Speaker of Parliament, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, has chided the Roads and Transport Committee of Parliament for failing to exercise adequate oversight over the construction of the Achimota-Ofankor Highway.
The lack of the requisite oversight over the project resulted in the over bloating of the contract sum by GH¢88 million.
The original sum was GH¢40.4 million, but the budget overrun brought the final figure to GH¢128 million.
The Speaker said with such a huge overrun, the Committee on Roads and Transport had failed Parliament and the entire nation.
Mr Adjaho criticised the committee after members condemned the Ministry of Roads and Highways for making unrelated expenditure in respect of the project.
The unrelated expenditure included the purchase of a BMW saloon car at a cost of $160,305 for the then sector Minister, Mr Joe Gidisu, to use to inspect the project. The car had comprehensive insurance cover of $6,672.
Other unrelated expenditure
Again, as part of unrelated expenditure by the ministry, GH¢34,764 was paid as allowances to 13 staff members of the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA); there was renovation of the GHA’s archive basement into offices, as well as the deputy CEO’s office, at a cost of GH¢33,225; the training of four members of staff of the GHA at GIMPA at a cost GH¢11,264 and the participation of four others in a course in urban transportation at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
Adjaho’s displeasure
The Speaker noted that the argument that the committee was not well-resourced and, therefore, members could not effectively tour the project site and make their recommendations for action to be taken was not tenable. That lame argument, he said, should not prevent the committee from conducting proper due diligence before approving budget 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 the budget for the ministry and that in considering the estimates, due diligence could have been done to detect such expenses outside the normal contract.
“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 the project,” Mr Adjaho said.
The Majority Chief Whip, Alhaji Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, said the acquisition of luxurious vehicles to inspect projects needed to be stopped because the nation was facing economic challenges. "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 going on," he said. Earlier, the Minority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, had accused the Ministry of Finance of failing to provide money to enable parliamentary committees to exercise their oversight responsibility.