Upper West Regional branch of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has appealed to the Special Prosecutor (SP), Martin Alamisi Burnes Kaiser Amidu, to take a keen interest in the sole source of the Bolga-Bawku road contract awarded by the former President, John Mahama.
The party said, the processes leading to the awarding of the contract which was sole source, are suspicious and in breach of the Public Procurement Act, which needs urgent probe by the Special Prosecutor.
The party’s call for investigations was born out of the outburst by the former President Mahama on the Bolga-Bawku road during a ‘Unity Walk’ by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) on Saturday May 5, 2018, at Bolgatanga in the Upper West Region.
“A lot of the projects we started have stalled. Many of the hospitals we were building have come to a stop. Many of the schools we were building have come to a stop. Many of the roads we were building have come to a stop. But I have one appeal. If there was one project that we started, that is critical to the economic devolvement of the Upper West region, it is the Bolga-Bawku road”, he noted.
“If President Akufo-Addo won’t do anything for us in Upper East at all, we beg him, as for that road, he should continue it and finish it for us,” the former President said in an address at the NDC’s unity walk in Bolgatanga.
Only 20 km of the 110km Bolgatanga-Bawku-Pulmakom road had been completed and opened to the public, as at August 2017. The GHS612-million contract for the road was awarded to Queiroz Galvao Construction Limited in 2016.
Reacting to the plea by the former President in a statement signed by the Upper East Assistant Regional Secretary of the NPP, Elvis Figo Awonekai, on Sunday May 6, 2018, said “the contract was awarded on 7th December 2016, elections day. Interestingly, Mr. John Dramani Mahama during his accounting to the people tour had cut the sod, at Lamboya near Zebilla, for the construction of the same road on Monday 11th July 2016, where he landed with helicopter in a Hollywood style for sod cutting.”
He noted that “the sod cutting was to enable him come to Upper East Region because he had made assurance to the chiefs and people of Bawku while speaking at the 27th annual SAMANPIID festival celebrated by the KUSUAG people in the Bawku Municipality”.
“I call on the Special Prosecutor to take keen interest in this sole source contract awarded by Mr. Mahama looter Government. The processes leading to the contract been sole source are suspicious and in breach of the Public Procurement Act”.
Mr. Figo Awonekai added that “payment certificates as contained in the contract are to be paid from the Road Fund. This is not the right source for funding the contract. The magnitude of the contract (over $600 million) requires that payment be effected directly from the budget and not from the Road Fund. The Road Fund was established for the preservation of Ghana’s road network and not for the payments of big constructions such as this”.
He observed that “the road is 116km long. 13km out of this has been awarded to a Ghanaian contractor, MAWUMS Constructions Ltd as a special contract. The remaining 103 has been awarded to a Brazilian contractor, Queiroz Galvao. The reasons for awarding such a special contract to MAWUMS Constructions Ltd is still questionable”.
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