The Minister of Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, has firmly pushed back against claims that the Ministry of Roads and Highways has been dominated by sole-sourcing, presenting official data showing that more than 90 percent of road contracts awarded under the current administration went through open, competitive tendering.
His robust defense comes on the heels of a controversial investigative report by The Fourth Estate, a project of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA). The report analyzed 107 contracts under the government’s “Big Push” infrastructure programme, concluding that 81 of them—roughly 76 percent—were awarded through sole-sourcing, thereby raising serious concerns about procurement transparency.
However, speaking at the Government Accountability Series in Accra on Monday, June 15, Kwakye Ofosu accused the report of missing the broader picture. He provided a sweeping look at the ministry’s total procurement data for 2025 and 2026. Out of a total of 1,441 road projects awarded during this period, a commanding 1,301 were procured through open competitive tendering.
“1,301 out of 1,441 contracts, representing 90.28 per cent of road contracts under this government, were awarded through the open competitive tendering process,” he stated.
Drilling Down into the “Big Push” Addressing the specific “Big Push” initiative highlighted by the MFWA report, the Minister provided a different statistical breakdown. He clarified that out of the 140 projects under the programme, only 66—representing 47.14 percent—were awarded through single-sourcing.
Crucially, Kwakye Ofosu pointed out that 23 of these sole-sourced contracts were inherited from the previous administration, having already been awarded before the current government took office. The remaining Big Push contracts were awarded through restricted tendering.
PPA Approval Sought To preempt concerns about the legality of the exceptions, the Minister detailed the internal checks and balances applied. He noted that the various implementing agencies—the Ghana Highway Authority, the Department of Urban Roads, and the Department of Feeder Roads—did not act unilaterally.
According to Kwakye Ofosu, all agencies secured explicit approval from the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) Board before utilizing either single-sourcing or restricted tendering for specific Big Push projects. For instance, out of the 72 Big Push approvals granted to the Ghana Highway Authority, 51 were for single-sourcing and 21 for restricted tendering, all with the PPA’s blessing.
Justifying the Exceptions Defending the instances where sole-sourcing was utilized, the Minister explained the philosophical design of the Big Push. He noted that the programme was never intended to be a standard procurement exercise; rather, it was designed as a rapid infrastructure intervention.
He argued that the decision to bypass competitive tendering in certain cases was driven by urgent national considerations—specifically, the need to address critical road deficits, fast-track economic growth, and create immediate employment opportunities.
“The evidence clearly shows that single-sourcing was not the primary mechanism for Ministry of Roads and Highways contracts,” Kwakye Ofosu concluded. “Therefore, any claim that the ministry had become a sole-source factory cannot be sustained on the basis of verifiable evidence.”
