'Very soon EOCO will be at your door' – Agbodza warns surveyors over compensation claims

Minister of Roads and Highways, Kwame Governs Agbodza, has warned quantity surveyors who encourage property owners affected by road projects to reject the government's compensation valuations that they could face investigation by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO).

He made the remarks during an inspection of asphalt works on a two-kilometre access road linking Feyiase to the Sewua Regional Hospital in the Ashanti Region on August 21,2026.

'No more excuses for project delays' – Agbodza to road contractors

“Very soon EOCO will be at your door to actually justify why you think you can get that project affected person four times that amount,” Agbodza warned.

He said the government was considering reporting two quantity surveyors to EOCO over alleged attempts to inflate compensation claims for properties affected by road projects.

According to the minister, some surveyors approach persons whose properties are affected by road projects and advise them not to accept government’s valuation, promising instead to secure four, five or even six times the amount offered.

He said such practices often encourage affected property owners to seek court injunctions, leading to unnecessary delays in the execution of road projects and additional costs to the state.

"Some people in our country approach those people and tell them not to accept the valuation that is being given to you. We can give you four, five, or six times the amount that the government is offering you, and so they sometimes encourage the people to go to court to put an injunction on the projects. As a result, we have lost so much money and sometimes the projects are delayed needlessly (1:30) because of the behaviour of some of these people," he stated.

Governs Agbodza noted that the problem was not peculiar to Kumasi, stressing that similar incidents were occurring across the country.

JKB/VPO

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