Ghana Owes A Lot In The Road Sector - Finance Minister
Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance on Thursday said in spite of the major investments made in the road sector, Ghana continue to have major challenges with delayed payments and the resultant penalty payments and poor quality but costly road construction.
He said the past few years recorded a significant increase in the award of contracts, leading to a large portfolio of projects that are in excess of what our budget could accommodate.
“This has led to delayed payments and the resultant penalty payments, accumulation of arrears and unacceptable poor quality but costly road construction” Mr Ofori-Atta said in address to Parliament during his maiden budget statement in Accra.
There are also the issues of limited contractor capacities leading to substandard work, encroachment of right of way and lack of maintenance and care.”
Mr Ofori-Atta however said the Road Ministry maintained its focus on routine and periodic maintenance activities to protect the huge investment made by Government in the provision of the road infrastructure.
“In 2016, routine maintenance activities were undertaken on 10,723.49km (90 percent of the approved work plan) of the trunk road network; 16,183km (72 percent of the approved work plan) on the feeder road network; and 9,384km (94 percent of the approved work plan) on the urban road network.
He said the new government would in 2017, undertake a review of existing projects to bring them to more sustainable levels and within available funding.
Monitoring would be strengthened and efficiency measures followed while new projects would only be accommodated after review and within the allowable fiscal space.
“In the meantime maintenance work will be continued. These will include 11,900km, 22,950km and 10,200km of routine maintenance activities (grading, pothole patching, shoulder maintenance, vegetation control) on trunk, feeder and urban road networks respectively”.
He said the Ministry would also undertake minor rehabilitation works on 60km of trunk roads, 350km of feeder roads and 100km of urban roads.
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