Kwame Agbodza, Member of Parliament for Adaklu
Member of Parliament for Adaklu and Ranking Member on the Roads and Transport Committee of Parliament, Kwame Agbodza, has described as “unacceptable” government’s directive to suspend the award of new road maintenance contracts until further notice.
His comments come on the back of a directive from the government that all new road maintenance contracts be suspended.
A private mail dated May 7, 2021, from the Ministry of Roads and Highways to all Regional Directors of the Department of Urban Roads instructed that all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies be informed about the directive.
“Management has been instructed not to award any Routine or Periodic Maintenance Contracts till further notice.
“You are therefore to take note and abide by this directive.
“Kindly inform all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies within your jurisdiction to obey this directive from the Ministry of Roads and Highways.
“As a consequence, any Payment Certificate received for a new contract shall be returned immediately to its original source,” the mail reads.
But, Mr. Agbodza wants the directive withdrawn immediately. He argues that road maintenance is too crucial to have been handled the way government is going about it.
“News of government decision not to commit to new projects in terms of routine and periodic maintenance is unacceptable. This is more so because we are in the time of the year where many of our roads deteriorating simply because of the rains and you can see already many communities agitating for government intervention in terms of remedying the bad nature of the roads leading to their communities. So we would have thought government will be doing the reverse,” he said.