Minority demands abrogation of ‘illegal’ Tema Motorway expansion contract with Mota Engil

The Ranking Member on Parliament’s Road and Transport Committee, Governs Kwame Agbodza, is demanding the abrogation of the contract between the government of Ghana and Mota Engil for the Accra-Tema Motorway Expansion Project.

According to him, the Minister for Roads and Highways, Kwesi Amoako-Atta, flouted the constitutional provision which requires international business and economic transactions to be ratified by Parliament by sidestepping the House in the contract award under the cloak of approval from the Public Procurement Authority.

Addressing the media, the Adaklu MP indicated that the contract as it stands is illegal and not binding on Ghana.

“The NDC is not against government developing infrastructure… The government of Ghana owes Ghanaian contractors who work on roads almost close to GHS8 billion, and if you are no longer going to get support financially from Mota Engil to do this project, then what is the essence of signing a design and contract agreement illegally with Mota Engil,” he quizzed.

The legislator argued that Ghanaian contractors should be given to project to handle.

“27 km of roadwork can be done by Ghanaian contractors, so we are calling on the Minister to abrogate that illegal contract with Mota Engil. They are not qualified. PPA never gave the authorization to sidestep Parliament. They only said you can go sole-sourcing. This contract is illegitimate. It is not binding on Ghana.”

Similar concerns were raised about the $570 million Accra-Tema Motorway expansion contract in January this year.

The Ministry of Roads and Highways at the time said the concerns raised by the minority caucus do not “represent the accurate status of the contract”.

“The attention of the Ministry of Roads and Highways has been drawn to a press conference by the NDC Caucus in Parliament on Wednesday, January 13, 2021, calling for the abrogation of the Accra – Tema Motorway expansion contract signed between the government of Ghana and Mota-Engil Engenharia E Construcao Africa S.A. The Ministry wishes to state without equivocation that the assertions and conclusions made by the NDC caucus in Parliament do not represent the accurate status of the contract,” it said in a statement.

It further explained that “the Accra-Tema Motorway has exceeded its design life since it was constructed in 1964. The scope of the project includes expansion of the lanes, new interchanges, and remodeling of the Tetteh Quashie interchange to remove traffic bottlenecks on the corridor for the benefits of road users.”