The Minority in Parliament has indicated that the Ministry of Roads does not have the full complement of personnel to supervise road projects in the country.
The Minority says the Ministry has only 147 engineers despite the over 2,000 projects across the country.
A member of the Transport and Roads Committee in Parliament Agbodza Governs, speaking to the media, questioned how the 147 personnel would manage the number of projects in the country.
This, he lamented, has affected the quality of work being done by contractors.
Mr. Agbodza, who is the MP for Adaklu said, although the Minister talked about several things, there is no funding to fund the projects.
He said the budget allocated to the Ministry is 2.4 billion, and just about 1 billion, is earmarked for road projects.
He quizzed: ”how is the Minister supposed to pay for the billions of projects he talked about?”
He noted that the Minister has failed to impress upon the Minister of Finance to release funding for projects.
Agbodza Governs added that the Roads Minister is unable to tell the Finance Minister to decap the road fund.
Mr Amoako-Atta on Sunday told the media that 25 interchanges have been earmarked for construction across the country to ease the traffic situation.
He added that out of which 20 will be completed before the end of President Akufo-Addo’s term.
But reacting, Mr. Agbodza said: “The Minister talked about many things, but the entire budget for the Ministry is ¢2.4 billion, and just about ¢1 billion is what has been earmarked for capital investment. So how is the Minister supposed to pay for the billions of projects he is talking about out of 1 billion?”
Meanwhile, he has hinted the Minority will resist any attempt by the government to increase road tolls until such a time they decap the Road Fund.
“We agree with government that we must get more resources to the road ministry to improve our roads. We will support government in that endeavour.
“But we shall not support government to increase road tolls, unless government is able to decap Road Fund and give all that money to the road Ministry then we can discuss the gap that will be left.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com
