Government spokesman Felix Kwakye Ofosu has mounted a broader statistical defence of the Ministry of Roads and Highways against allegations of procurement abuse, arguing that sole sourced contracts represent a small fraction of the ministry’s overall contract awards since the National Democratic Congress (NDC) took office.
Speaking on TV3’s KeyPoints programme, Kwakye Ofosu said the ministry has awarded 930 contracts in total, of which sole sourced awards account for just 9.46 percent. He argued that focusing exclusively on the Big Push road programme, which accounts for the bulk of the controversial contracts, produces a distorted picture of the ministry’s procurement conduct.
“If you limit yourself to just one thing that the Ministry does, it would be unfair in terms of the full analysis,” he said.
His remarks come amid sustained scrutiny following an investigation by The Fourth Estate, a journalism platform of the Media Foundation for West Africa. The investigation, published on March 24, 2026, reported that 81 sole sourced contracts valued at more than GH¢73 billion were awarded under the Big Push programme within seven months, with not a single one of the 107 contracts examined awarded through competitive tendering.
Kwakye Ofosu offered a specific explanation for why some of the Big Push contracts were single sourced without fresh competitive bidding, pointing to the legacy of the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration. He said 23 Big Push contracts were modified versions of pre-existing agreements that could not simply be reassigned to new contractors because the government was already legally bound to the original firms.
Roads Minister Kwame Governs Agbodza had earlier disclosed that 23 major road projects originally awarded under the previous administration but stalled due to funding gaps were absorbed into the Big Push programme, with a combined value of GH¢14.88 billion. Named projects include the Suame Interchange, the Ofankor-Nsawam Road, and the Adenta-Dodowa Road.
Kwakye Ofosu said the situation was compounded by the previous government’s failure to secure adequate financing for those projects. Banks and financial institutions had stopped funding road works after debts went into default, making it legally and practically impossible to run fresh competitive tenders on routes that were already mid-contract with existing lenders attached.
“So they cut funding,” he said, explaining that single sourcing in those circumstances was not a policy preference but a consequence of the constraints the administration inherited.
He added that the broader procurement record demonstrates the government has not abandoned President John Mahama’s commitment to competitive bidding. He said 405 trunk road maintenance projects and 388 feeder route projects were advertised publicly and awarded through competitive bidding, and that this context must be considered alongside the sole sourced Big Push contracts before any conclusions are drawn.
President Mahama had pledged at the 2026 State of the Nation Address to bring legislation to Parliament to ban sole sourced contracts except in exceptional circumstances. The Fourth Estate’s findings placed that commitment under direct scrutiny, prompting Mahama to direct the Roads Ministry to provide a detailed formal response to the allegations.
The government has since paid over GH¢11 billion to clear a portion of road sector arrears inherited from the previous administration, which officials have described as the largest contractor arrears settlement in recent memory.
The opposition Minority in Parliament, led on roads matters by Kennedy Osei Nyarko, Ranking Member of the Roads and Transportation Committee, has called on the government to publish the full details of all Big Push contracts to allow independent public scrutiny of both the procurement methods used and the cost per kilometre of roads being built.
