The Ministry of Roads and Highways has been in the news over the past few days following an allegation by the former chairperson of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Prof Stephen Adei, that government officials demand the payment of 1 million before awarding road contracts.

The ministry in response stated that it finds the allegation “surprising” because road contracts are awarded in an “open, transparent, competitive" manner and "in accordance with the law”.

It added that because of the seriousness of the claims, the sector minister, Kwasi Amoako-Attah, has called on the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) to investigate it.

Well, this is not the first time an allegation of corruption has been made against the Roads Ministry. In fact, the minister has said that there is a lot of corruption in his ministry.

In a video shared by Graphic in August 2023, Amoako-Attah described some staff and members of his ministry as thieves and corrupt.

According to him, these elements put their selfish interests above that of the country and this reflects in their failure to ensure the right thing is done at all times.

“There are a lot of corrupt people, there are a lot of thieves in my ministry. You sack them, you employ new ones, and when they come, the new ones are even worse than the old ones that you sacked, what kind of country are we building for ourselves?

“I don’t know what people want, we will die and leave everything behind. All of us, those who came before us are all gone. We heard the big names, people with money and wealth, where are they? Look at what we are seeing and we are citizens of this country,” he said.

The minister who was visibly upset about freight vehicles which park their goods along many roads in Ghana said some of these actions are going on as a result of the refusal and failure of elements in his ministry to apprehend culprits and met out the necessary punishments.

“And these drivers, what they cannot do in their country, they do it here with impunity because people choose money over protecting the roads.

“We have people in my own ministry involved. We have fought these wars for years and we don’t seem to win,” he added.

Watch the video below:



BAI/AW

You can also watch this episode of People & Places on GhanaWeb TV:

 

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