The deplorable state of our roads is one of the biggest national security threats we face as a country. Bad roads have claimed many lives through fatal road accidents, armed robbery etc.
2. I am reliably informed that, the Surveying, Designing and Costing of Big Push road projects alone took the Ministry of Roads about 7 months to complete.
3. Resorting to the National Competitive Tendering process for the award of these critical road projects would have taken another couple months before the projects could even commence. This could have delayed the completion of most of the projects beyond 2028.
4. Competitive tendering processes have in some cases lasted for months. A typical example is the competitive tendering process for the Road Toll project that has not still be completed in about a year due to its complexities.
5. Section 40 of the Public Procurement Law provides for Single Source procurement method on grounds of urgency, among others, subject to the approval of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA). Thus, sole sourcing is lawful.
The unjustified use and abuse of sole sourcing is what President Mahama and the NDC have condemned.
6. There is not a scintilla of evidence in the Fourth Estate publication that shows that the use of sole sourcing for the said Big Push road projects was unjustified or that there were any breaches of the law or abuse of the process. Neither was any evidence of the cost of the projects being inflated adduced by the Fourth Estate.
6. In opposition, the NDC never said sole-sourcing was a sin or unlawful. We only preached against the unjustified use and abuse of sole-sourcing in the award of government projects, some of which were established by the Auditor General to be inflated. In fact, some of us cited audit findings of the Auditor General to show that sole-sourced cocoa road projects, some of which were awarded to Bawumia’s brother were inflated.
7. In the case of the Big Push road projects, all projects that were awarded through sole sourcing received prior PPA approval as same was justified on grounds of URGENCY. Value for Money audits were conducted. The contracts were not awarded to a select few but rather carefully selected, multiple, competent and experienced contractors with demonstrable capacity to complete the works on time. None of the contracts have been established to be inflated. The urgency of the projects cannot be denied. And like all road projects, payments are based on actual work done certified by independent Consultants.
8. As a matter of fact, 23 out of 84 Big Push road projects, such as Suame Interchange, Ofankor- Nsawam, Adenta- Dodowa, etc. are inherited road projects that were all awarded by the previous NPP government through sole-sourcing with no dedicated funding. This government has simply novated the projects, maintained the contractors and provided for funding for them under the Big Push policy. The 23 road projects were not re-awarded. Yet, the Fourth Estate has mischievously added all these projects to their list of sole-sourced contracts awarded by this government. Clearly they could have done a better job.
9. So what’s the point really? The NDC spoke against sole-sourcing in the past so every resort by the NDC to sole-sourcing in government must be condemned? Is that the logic being canvassed by the Fourth Estate?
A classical case of comparing oranges with apples.
