The Minister for Roads and Highways, Governs Kwame Agbodza, has disclosed that progress on the Tamale-Walewale Road project remains at a mere one per cent, despite the $29.6 million payment to the Indian-based construction firm JMC, now rebranded as Kalpatura Projects.
Answering questions on the floor of Parliament on Thursday, June 5, the Minister revealed that the payment represents 20 per cent of the total $158 million contract sum for the first phase of the project, which spans from Savelugu to Walewale.
The Minister said the project was set to commence in June 2022 and is expected to be completed in December 2025. However, on March 11, 2024, the contractor issued a notice of termination of the contract.
The Minister stated that the government is taking steps to ensure the contractor fulfils its obligations, warning that failure to do so would result in legal action.
“The project cost as documented is $158,617. 764 million, and yet the contractor claimed $29, 648, 180.20. The physical progress on site is 1%. It means that they didn’t even finish clearing the site. The contractor, in addition to the almost $30 million, is attempting to claim another $14 million for no work done. And now decide that after we leave them out of the contract for us to terminate.
He added, “Mr Speaker, as a Road Minister, knowing that I owe Ghanaian contractors over GHC21 billion, it is quite disheartening that at the same time we are unable to pay Ghanaian contractors for what they have done, we’ve paid contractor $30 million and the person is asking us to let him go with our money. We shall use the laws to demand that the $30 million worth of work is done, or we will take legal action to make sure we take our money.”
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