The Minister of Roads and Highways, Kwame Governs Agbodza, has disclosed that President John Dramani Mahama has directed the Road Ministry to ensure that all projects under the government’s Big Push initiative receive proper technical and financial attention.
Speaking during the Government Accountability Series on July 30, Mr Agbodza said the directive is part of efforts to reset the road sector and eliminate inefficiencies in the execution of public infrastructure projects.
“So, under the leadership of President Mahama, he directed that all Big Push projects should receive proper attention, in terms of conducting the studies, ensuring we do the designs ourselves, and even determining the costs internally,” Mr Agbodza stated.
“The cost of Big Push projects you’ll now see will be generated by our agencies, rather than by contractors, which is a major shift from how things were done before we took over. This is all part of the resetting happening within the road sector,”he added.
He criticised past practices where contractors led both design and costing processes, often resulting in inflated budgets and poor project outcomes.
“In the past, the government would announce a Big Push project and immediately, interested parties would rush to the agencies saying, ‘I want to do this,’ ‘I want to do that,’” Mr Agbodza said. “That approach created room for cost overruns and projects that didn’t deliver value for money.”
He also addressed the inefficiencies associated with the “design and build” procurement model.
“One of the things we identified as well was that the regime of awarding projects on a so-called ‘design and build’ basis created opportunities for inefficiencies and cost overruns,” he explained. “Many of those projects were not delivering value for money.”
The Big Push initiative is a flagship infrastructure development programme designed to support the 24-hour economy by providing the necessary infrastructure to ensure the continuous, round-the-clock movement of goods and services.
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