The Minister of Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, has rejected claims that road contract awards under the Ministry of Roads and Highways were dominated by sole-sourcing, stating that more than 90 per cent of projects were awarded through competitive tendering.
His comments follow a report by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), through its investigative journalism project, The Fourth Estate, which examined procurement practices under the government’s Big Push infrastructure programme.
The report analysed 107 Big Push contracts awarded between August 2025 and February 2026 and found that 81 of them, representing about 76 per cent, were awarded through sole-sourcing, raising concerns about transparency and competitiveness in the procurement process.
Speaking during the Government Accountability Series in Accra on Monday, June 15, Kwakye Ofosu said the findings did not reflect the broader procurement activities of the Ministry of Roads and Highways.
According to him, a total of 1,441 road projects were awarded by the ministry during 2025 and 2026, with 1,301 of them awarded through open competitive tendering.
“1,301 out of 1,441 contracts, representing 90.28 per cent of road contracts under this government, were awarded through the open competitive tendering process,” he said.
He added that only 66 of the 140 projects executed under the Big Push initiative were awarded through single-sourcing, representing 47.14 per cent of the programme’s contracts.
“Only 4.58 per cent of the total 1,441 road contracts awarded by the Ministry of Roads and Highways in 2025 and 2026 were awarded through the single-sourcing process,” he stated.
Kwakye Ofosu explained that the remaining Big Push contracts were awarded through restricted tendering, while 23 projects were inherited from the previous administration after already being awarded on a single-source basis.
He noted that the Ghana Highway Authority, Department of Urban Roads and Department of Feeder Roads obtained approval from the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) Board before using either single-sourcing or restricted tendering for specific projects under the initiative.
According to him, the Ghana Highway Authority secured approvals for 72 Big Push projects, of which 51 were procured through single-sourcing and 21 through restricted tendering.
The Department of Urban Roads obtained approval for 16 projects, with 11 awarded through single-sourcing and 5 through restricted tendering, while the Department of Feeder Roads received approval for 29 projects, 4 of which were awarded through single-sourcing and 25 through restricted tendering.
The minister argued that the figures demonstrate that sole-sourcing was not the dominant procurement method used by the Roads Ministry.
“The evidence clearly shows that single-sourcing was not the primary mechanism for Ministry of Roads and Highways contracts. Therefore, any claim that the ministry had become a sole-source factory cannot be sustained on the basis of verifiable evidence,” he said.
Kwakye Ofosu further justified the use of single-sourcing for some Big Push projects, explaining that the programme was designed as a rapid infrastructure development initiative aimed at addressing critical road challenges, creating jobs and accelerating economic growth.
He said the decision to award some contracts through single-sourcing was informed by urgent national considerations and aligned with the government’s objective of fast-tracking infrastructure delivery under the Big Push programme.