MP demands accountability on revenue from road tolls

Member of Parliament for Damango in the Northern Region, Mutawakilu Adam, is demanding accountability in the management of road tolls in the country.

He said it is incumbent on the Ministry of Roads and Highways as well as the Ghana Road Fund to account to Ghanaians the amount of revenue generated from the collection of tolls in Ghana and how they are expended.

“The Road Fund needs to come out clearly on how much they raised in a year, what they use the money for so that we will have insight about it, if not people will generalize everything” he stated.

His comment comes on the back of government announcement that it has abrogated 136 road contracts due to the failure of the contractors to begin construction work.

Mr Adam said it is imperative for the Ministry of Roads and Highways to tell the people of Ghana what happens to the roads that have had its contracts cancelled.

“The Roads Ministry and Road Fund must come out to tell us what is next because if my road has been abrogated, my concern is, will another contractor come to work because road contract abrogation is not new to us” he said.

The MP added: “it is very important that as a nation, we evaluate the contracts to ensure that there is no judgement debt hanging on our necks”.

Contributing to the discussion, deputy chief executive of Ghana Export Promotion Authority, Eric Amoako Twum, justified the cancellation of those contracts saying that once a contract is signed and mobilization funds provided, the government has the right to abrogate it if the contractor does not begin construction.

“There is a certain amount of time; reasonable time for you to go to site and if that has happened and you have not moves to the site, then it must be abrogated” he stated.