- INFRASTRUCTURE & ROADS
The President claimed that his government has brought about unprecedented levels of infrastructural development. So let’s take a quick look at the story of infrastructure development in our country. The evidence shows that, notwithstanding the massive increase in the debt stock, capital expenditure as a percentage of GDP has actually been on the decline from 9.1% of GDP in 2008 to 4.1% by 2015.
It is, in fact, a travesty that Ghana, before the discovery of oil, was spending a higher proportion of its income on infrastructure investment, than after the discovery of oil and the massive increase in the debt stock. What is sad is that the Mahama government has only spent about 20% of the $37 billion it has borrowed for infrastructure projects. Ghanaians should, therefore, rightly expect at least 4 to 5 times more projects than what the government is touting.
The President spent over 40 minutes recounting his “achievements” in the roads sector. His story was, unfortunately, not corroborated by the facts on the ground. For instance, he mentioned works on the Drobo-Sampa road, as he did last year. At the time President Kufuor was leaving, the 40-kilometre stretch from Drobo to Suma had been done, leaving 7 kilometers from Suma through Sampa to the border. For over 7 years, the 7km stretch has not been completed. The Atebubu-Kwame Danso road, which the President said is on course, has long been abandoned by the contractor, G.N. Ghanem. The Tarkwa-Bogoso-Ayamfuri road that the President mentioned is part of the Takoradi-Kumasi road, for which President Kufuor had secured funding and works had been executed from Takoradi to Apemenyin. President Kufuor secured another $73 million to do the road to Ayamfuri. This Apemenyim to Ayamfuri section has taken more than 7 years to complete.
Notwithstanding, it is an undisputable fact that the NPP investment between 2001-2009 far exceeds that of the NDC since 2009. The road network in President Kufuor’s time increased from 37,321 km to 67,291 km. The NDC has moved it from 67,291 to 71,063 km. This means that the NPP constructed 8 times more roads (km) than the NDC, even though the NDC had 10 times more money. The President, himself, admitted that his government’s contribution to the road network is a mere 3,700 kilometres over the eight years of stewardship.
There is a very good reason why the NPP managed to construct a lot more roads with less money than the NDC has done in these last 7 years. It is about value for money. Under the 8 years of NPP, the average cost was $480,000. In these two terms of this NDC government, the average cost of the same 1 kilometre asphaltic road is $1.5 million. Yes, from $480,000 under President Kufuor to $1.5 million under President Mahama. This, fellow Ghanaians, is the real state of governance in Ghana today, where the Government throws so much money at fewer projects. The more inflated the cost of projects are, the less our country develops, and the less we are able to spend on the needy.
Indeed, most projects executed under this government have been over-priced, due mainly to the single source procurement method, which has become the procurement method of choice for this government. The examples are many, and have become bywords of the Mahama administration – SADA, GYEEDA, KARPOWER, SMARTYS, AMERI, ENI, ETC, ETC.
And Mr President you don’t have to be an NPP political quantity surveyor to be alarmed by the overpricing of projects. The Crown Agents reviewed the contract for the Ridge Hospital upgrading and they decided we were being charged 142 million dollars more than similar jobs in other parts of the world.
Every project that has been undertaken by this government as a remedy for the four-year energy problem, has been done under a crisis procurement regimen. This means we have had to pay far more than we should normally, for it is a fact of life in the energy sector that every time procurement has to be done on an emergency basis means that you have failed to plan adequately. You have, then, to pay for your failure.
- See more at: http://citifmonline.com/2016/02/29/full-text-nana-addos-real-state-of-the-nation-address/#sthash.ODAvNoXg.dpuf
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