Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia says the Akufo-Addo government, has, apart from its pursuit of an inclusive infrastructure development for all, also focused on delivering the best value for money for all of its projects.
During the presentation of the Akufo-Addo government’s infrastructure record on Tuesday at the Govts 8th Town Hall meeting and Results fair at the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences in Accra, Dr. Bawumia revealed what he said were staggering disparities in the value of similar projects undertaken by the erstwhile John Mahama government and current projects by the Akufo-Addo government.
To Dr. Bawumia, the cost of projects undertaken by the Mahama government, on a comparative value for money analysis, appear to be quite outrageous. Using a combination of film, tables and data, Dr Bawumia disclosed that over the past 3 and half years, the Akufo-Addo administration has implemented different infrastructure programmes across various sectors in line with the government’s agenda to ensure inclusive and accelerated economic development. The focus, he said, has been to provide infrastructure for all.
Making the comparison, the Vice President said while the NPP government is constructing four major interchanges; Tema, Pokuase, Tamale and Obetsebi Lamptey interchanges at a cost of $289m, the Mahama administration built the Kwame Nkrumah interchange alone at a cost of $260m.
For the Pokuase interchange, which he said is 75% complete, Dr. Bawumia explained that the loan agreement for the project was signed in November 2016 for a three-tier interchange, but the Akufo-Addo government renegotiated for a four-tier interchange without any increase in cost.
Last week, Vice President Bawumia cut the sod for the construction of another three-tier interchange at Nungua barrier as part of the construction of the Accra-Tema beach road, and announced that another sod will be cut for the construction of an interchange at PTC in Takoradi.
He said another major interchange, which is part of the interchanges the NPP government is building in its first term, is the Tamale interchange. It is the first ever interchange in the Northern Sector of the country.
It is 44% complete and is expected to be completed by the middle of 2021.
Zeroing in on sectoral performance, the Vice President revealed that a total of 1927 road projects have been undertaken across the country since 2017. Out of that, 1307 of them are completed while 620 are currently under construction.
“Government has selected three critical roads in every region. Work is ongoing on all these critical roads and are at various stages of completion, including the famous Eastern Corridor road, for example Jasikan-Dodo-Pepesu road, Bolga-Bawku (80% complete) and Lawra-Hamile (complete).
The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, used the occasion to outdoor a website designed to capture and make easily accessible, data on all of the Akufo-Addo government’s infrastructure projects since it assumed office in January 2017.
The website, www.deliverytracker.gov.gh, has been populated with data sourced from the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), and provides information on the status of roads, agriculture, industry, sports, housing, airport, sea defence, fish landing sites, markets, security and digital infrastructure.
