Kwame Governs Agbodza, the Minister for Roads and Highways, has issued a two-month ultimatum to the contractor of the Wenchi–Sawla road, Maripoma Enterprise Limited.
According to the Roads Minister, Maripoma Enterprise Limited must deliver at least 20% progress on the Wenchi–Sawla Lot 7 road project or face contract termination.
Kwame Governs Agbodza made this known after inspecting the project and expressed strong dissatisfaction with the contractor’s performance.
The Roads Minister stated, “It’s either you do the 20%, or we terminate. You are not the first person we are telling,” Mr Agbodza said during the inspection.
“We went to the Western North. You didn’t even turn up on the site. You did not even turn up on the site when you took mobilisation on that one as well. In fact, you didn’t even have a site camp,” he said.
“You are a big company, but your bigness is not showing in the actual delivery of your projects,” he said. “We need to say this in the afternoon for everybody to hear. You must change the way you operate your things. At the moment, it’s not helpful to you and to the country.”
He further added, “You are sitting on the job. Well, we have said what we have to say. You have two months to do 20 per cent, or we are not even coming to talk to you. We’ll terminate, and you can go to court”.
“Go and see the condition in which the people are in that section of the road. Why? It’s not right,” he said.
“We should be celebrating policy like the Big Push. It was built around the Ghanaian contractor, and it was deliberate,” he added.
The Road Minister further lamented that the delays are exposing the government to public criticism on social media, saying, “Why should the President suffer abuse on this corridor because he’s giving you work, and you are not doing the work?” he said. “Do you see what they are saying on social media? TikTok? What wrong have we done?”
Also, Kwame Governs Agbodza, and his Deputy, Alhassan Sayibu Suhuyini, have summoned contractors working on the Techiman–Nkonsia–Wenchi road project over the slow pace.
The Road Minister revealed that the contractor, VOLTA IMPEX, received approximately GH¢66 million as mobilisation funds but has failed to deliver work to the expected standard.
Governs Agbodza in the video stated, “The clearing that we all witnessed doesn’t look like work done in January or February. It looks like it was carried out only about three or four days ago”.
“Where is the project manager? When did you do this clearing?” he asked.
“This cannot be clearing done in April. You first said April, and now you say part was done earlier and another part today,” he stated.
“On our way here, we were shocked to be told that we are actually coming to hand over the site to the contractor. It clearly indicates that no real work has been happening,” he said.
“We have information that about GH¢66 million has been paid as mobilisation for this project. It is unacceptable for us to see this level of work at this stage,” he added.
“This is totally unacceptable. The contractor’s Chief Director must appear before the Ministry on Thursday at 8:00 a.m. to explain what is happening,” he said.
Watch the video below: