A lawyer and resident of Tetetgu, Kweku Paintsil has written to the Minister of Roads and Highways demanding the details of the contracts and other public documents related to a one-kilometre road in the area.
The road in question divides the Ga South Municipality town into two.
[contextly_sidebar id=”uOKB9Qqal14pHtPoiv508VJSpNz003xt”]The letter, published in The Chronicle newspaper, Mr Paintsil, contends that road is in a terrible state. This is despite its status as a completed road.
“For a barely one-kilometre road, this is completely shocking and calls into question the supervisory acumen and competency of the public offices under whose watch the project was executed,” the lawyer said in his letter.
He plans to seek an independent audit for a value-for-money assessment of the contract.
On why he had taken these steps, he said he was only living up to President Nana Akufo-Addo’s charge to Ghanaians to be citizens and not spectators.
“If there is anybody who is better placed to be a citizen, then I guess a lawyer must be, so I am being a citizen. I am responding to the call of the President,” he said on the Citi Breakfast Show.
Besides this, Mr Paintsil said the information was his right.
“The things that they do, they do it not for themselves but the public. The money they use is not their money. It is the taxpayers’ money. We are entitled. These things are supposed to be on display. There should be an office that you can walk into. They should show you the designs and everything. It is not their money. It is our money that they use and therefore, these things are not to be kept in secret files and so forth.”
He remains unsure of the contract sum, but he said the work done so far “is like somebody has used some black paint just to paint the floor.”
That is why he is pushing for the audit to ascertain the obligations of the contractor and the value for money.
“We will follow it to its logical conclusion. The time has come, and I am calling upon other people in other places to take on their district assemblies and all of that,” the lawyer stated.
In July 2016, a GHc 2.9 million contract was awarded for the construction of three roads to Bethel Construction Limited.
The roads include a 2.2 km, 1 km and a 1.2 km bypass.
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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citinewsroom.com/Ghana
