The Minority in Parliament has bemoaned the presentation of critical financial and commercial agreements to Parliament without legal opinions and value for money audits.
According to the Ranking Member for the Roads and Transport Committee of Parliament, Kwami Agbodza, the trend is worrying and deprives Parliament of the required input to do better scrutiny of most agreements that come before the House.
Contributing to a debate on the $100 million military housing project, the Adaklu MP insisted that such a practice is not right.
“This House cannot be seen to be approving agreements without the critical ingredients when it comes to procurement contracts in this House.”
Mr. Agbodza’s comment comes days after he expressed concerns over the rising cost of projects under the Sinohydro deal.
Mr. Agbodza said the average cost of a kilometre of a road under the project has shot up from the initial sum of over a million dollars to about 6 million Ghana cedis because of the declining value of the cedi against the dollar.
He said this could get worse if there is a continuous delay of the project due to the free fall of the cedi.
“We the Minority have always said that the government of the day need to invest a lot more for us to upgrade our roads and I sympathize with the Roads Minister who has to answer the largest questions in this House about roads and he diligently did that. But, unfortunately, he does not get the corresponding finances to do the project. Everybody was aware government was chasing some Sinohydro money.”
The Chairman of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Dr Mark Assibey Yeboah however assured that comprehensive value for money audits will be conducted on the road projects under the Sinohydro deal before the first phase of construction commences.
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By: Marian Ansah| citinewsroom.com| Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah