Ranking Member on Parliament’s Roads and Transport Committee, Kennedy Osei Nyarko, has urged the government to prioritise the clearance of outstanding debts owed to road contractors before initiating any new road projects.
Speaking on JoyNews’ Top Story on Tuesday, December 2, he expressed deep concern over the mounting arrears of about GH₵40 billion, despite a GH₵5.3 billion allocation to the Ministry of Roads and Highways in the 2026 Budget.
According to him, the government’s current approach of paying contractors “little by little”, is unsustainable and has driven some contractors to invoke provisions in their contracts that impose hefty penalties for delayed payments—sometimes up to three times the original amount.
“This situation is worrying. There must be a clear strategy on how to deal with this,” he stressed.
Mr. Osei Nyarko proposed a straightforward solution: “clear all outstanding debts, then strictly adhere to the annual budget allocation for roads.” He insisted that no new contracts or projects should be awarded without secured funding.
“Clear them, then after that we go strictly by our budget. If there is no money, we won’t give any contract or project without funding. That is the only solution,” he said.
He further advised that if government decides not to take on new road construction commitments due to limited fiscal space, then priority must shift to rigorous road maintenance to protect existing infrastructure.
“We need to pay critical attention to road maintenance because if government is not going to commit the state to constructing new projects, then the state has to maintain the existing roads,” he added.