President John Dramani Mahama has said contractors who received double payments for road construction during the previous administration will be punished.
John Mahama revealed that the Auditor-General has completed an audit of the payments, and contractors will return to the site except those found to have received double payments, who will be made to face the law.
Speaking during his Thank You Tour of the Eastern Region. John Mahama stated, “We are going to use some of the money for the Big Push. The Big Push, we are going to use it to construct roads. I know a lot of Chiefs during our campaign, and one of the things they kept crying about was the bad roads.
When we came to the ongoing roads, we asked the contractors to wait for some time for us to audit because some of the road projects had the road fund paying for it, and that same certificate will be sent to the finance department, and the finance department will also pay double”.
John Mahama revealed, “So we told the Auditor General to audit all the road projects, and he has done his job and has submitted his report.
We are going to allow all the contractors to go back to sites, except those contractors who received double payments, they are going to be dealt with”, he added.
Meanwhile, Kwame Governs Agbodza, the Minister for Roads and Highways, has revealed that the government is set to release GH₵4 billion of the GH₵21 billion road sector debt to allow contractors to return to site and resume work.
The road minister revealed that many contractors were forced to borrow money to pre-finance projects with the expectation of reimbursement, which has led to project stalling due to the absence of timely payments, rendering continued operations unsustainable.
He revealed that Ghana owes road contractors an estimated GH₵21 billion in arrears.
Speaking at a press briefing on Tuesday, July 8, Kwame Governs Agbodza stated, “At the time of transition, we are told that the majority of road contractors were actually off-site simply because they did some work, raised a certificate and were not paid. Some of them, as far back as 2018.
Their certificates were not honoured, and so while they borrowed money, put in the work and were not paid, it was not feasible for them to continue to work.
“At the time of transition, we are told that the amount of money owed to contractors is about GH₵21billion. So you can imagine the scale of the problem we have in terms of why contractors are not on site,” he said.
He added, “If you listened to His Excellency the President, yesterday he indicated that toward the end of this month, the Finance Minister will be taking steps to retire some of the debts owed to contractors so that they can go back to site and complete the work.
On record, we are intending to pay some GH₵4 billion towards retiring part of the GH₵21 billion from this month,” he stated.
Watch the video below:
President Mahama says contractors who received double payments for road construction during the previous administration will be punished.
Speaking during his Thank You Tour of the Eastern Region, he sajd the Auditor-General has completed an audit of the payments, and… pic.twitter.com/uktcOlHVYG
— JoyNews (@JoyNewsOnTV) July 20, 2025
