Mahama made no mistake in awarding the contracts for the cocoa route: minority to the government



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The minority in Parliament is fighting allegations of wrongdoing against former President John Mahama in the award of road contracts during his tenure.

Kwame Agbadza Governs, a prominent member of Parliament’s Transport Committee, has challenged the government to make public its audit report on these issues.

“There is no evidence that there were irregularities in the cocoa roads under Mahama… There is nothing to show that any of the acquisitions, even under a single supplier, were done incorrectly because Section 40 was complied with,” he told Evans Mensah .

Former President John Dramani Mahama previously described the decision of the Akufo-Addo administration to abandon the cocoa roads project upon taking office as unjustifiable.

The PNP in a press conference on Monday, however, provided more information to support the government’s decision to keep the infrastructure projects.

The director of Communications for the nuclear power plant, Yaw Buaben Asamoa, explained that “the cocoa road contracts awarded by the previous government, which constitute 229 projects, amounted to about ¢ 5.1 billion.

“This was at a time when the funds available to pay for road construction in total were only ¢ 1.7 billion. Specifically, for the cacao roads, the annual amounts approved averaged ¢ 500 million for the Cocobod Infrastructure Development Trust Fund over the entire five-year period of the program.

Mr. Buaben Asamoa indicated that the suspension of the projects “allowed a new determination of the scope and an adequate alignment of funds, as well as open competitive bidding processes for the award of new contracts for cocoa roads.”

This claim was also supported by Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) Chief Executive Officer Joseph Boahen Aidoo in Joy FM’s Top Story article.

But the NDC wants these accusations to be met with a pinch of salt.

“If you are looking for a government that cannot be direct with the people, you stop the cocoa roads and the roads deteriorate, you cannot publish the report, but you kept doing this. Today, one kilometer of the 71 km Enchi-Elubo highway will cost 160 million dollars. ” Kwame Agbodza Governs said.

According to him, the government’s inability to publish the audit report detailing the findings goes a long way in supporting the NDC’s claim that the process is an unnecessary undertaking.

“Four years after the announcement of an audit on the cocoa roads, the government of President Akufo-Addo cannot point you to a website or a location and is now asking you to go and apply. That is a novelty ”, he added.

He believes the government has deliberately resumed construction of the roads a few months before the elections for political gain.

Meanwhile, the head of COCOBOD indicated that the details of the audit report cannot be made public.

However, he added that it would be necessary to go through “processes” to acquire a copy.

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