Governs Kwame Agbodza, the minister of Roads and Highways, has said the John Mahama-led Big Push projects will be completed in twenty-four months.
The roads minister revealed that the Big Push road projects have been deliberately structured to span two years.
According to Agbodza, under the reset agenda, if there’s any evidence of a three-month delay by a contractor, they will write it into the contract and terminate it.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, Agbodza detailed, “The average Ghanaian has come to accept something that is completely unacceptable, because they see road projects start around their backyard, and no one can tell them when it will be completed. We want to reset. ‘Reset’ means we need to change that narrative”.
“All the projects have been deliberately structured to span two years, 24 months, and we will not go beyond that. Sometimes, a contractor is awarded 100 kilometres of road. People forget that constructing 100 kilometres is not a small undertaking.
There may be people who are more interested in how much it costs — they focus on the money involved. So contractors take the job, and for seven or eight years, they do nothing. We want to avoid that”, he added.
The road minister emphasised that the project will go strictly with its timeline of completion, “From now on, Big Push — which is something we needed like yesterday — will work differently. When we award you 20 kilometres of road and say complete it in 24 months, we expect you to finish ahead of schedule.
If there’s any evidence of a three-month delay, we’ll write it into the contract: we terminate. We are not going to wait. If you like, go to court.
“No contractor is compelled to participate in Big Push, but if you do, you must be prepared to work 24/7. You must be ready to deliver within 12 months unless something extremely unforeseen happens, and we’ll be the ones to determine that.”
Governs Kwame Agbodza further revealed that there is a lack of effective supervision of road projects, as some project expected to last 15 years fails within 6 months.
The road minister added, “Another problem we’ve noticed is the lack of effective supervision, either by third-party service providers like consultants or by our own staff from the various agencies.
There is evidence that most of them did not perform the way they should. For instance, a road is built that’s supposed to last 15 years, and it fails in six months, then we have to look for more money to fix it again. That cannot continue”.
Agbodza warned that contractors who want to participate in any activity at the Ministry must demonstrate technical capability.
He asserted, “You must take the appropriate steps, including securing the right insurance. The days when a contractor gets an insurance firm to issue a piece of paper, thinking we’ll never cash it when things go wrong, are over. Let me remind you, this time around, we’ll be very happy to cash it”.
The road minister further clarified that the Big Push project is not only about a road project, but also a special vehicle to address the interconnectivity.