National Communication Officer of ruling government’s party, the National Democratic Congress, Sammy Gyamfi, has defended the government’s decision to use sole-sourcing in awarding road projects under the Big Push initiative.
According to Gyamfi, the deplorable state of the country’s roads, which posed a significant national security threat as it continued to claim lives and facilitated crimes like armed robbery, needed an urgent attention and immediate solution.
“The deplorable state of our roads is one of the biggest national security threats we face as a country,” Gyamfi stated. In a statement to counter the raging discussions about government’s decision to resort to sole sourcing, Sammy Gyamfi argued that “resorting to the National Competitive Tendering process would have delayed the projects beyond 2028”, hence the decision to use sole-sourcing.
Gyamfi pointed out that the Surveying, Designing, and Costing of the Big Push road projects took the Ministry of Roads about 7 months to complete. “I am reliably informed that the Surveying, Designing and Costing of Big Push road projects alone took the Ministry of Roads about 7 months to complete,” he said.
He emphatically posited that the use of sole-sourcing has been justified, citing Section 40 of the Public Procurement Law, which allows for Single Source procurement on grounds of urgency, subject to approval by the Public Procurement Authority (PPA). “Thus, sole sourcing is lawful,” he emphasized.
Juxtaposing the government’s decision to resort to sole- sourcing against what the party preached while in opposition, Gyamfi maintained that the NDC has consistently condemned the unjustified use and abuse of sole-sourcing, not the practice itself. “The unjustified use and abuse of sole sourcing is what President Mahama and the NDC have condemned,” he said.
No evidence of corruption or bloated figures
Sammy Gyamfi emphasized that there is no evidence to suggest that the use of sole-sourcing for the Big Push projects was unjustified or involved breaches of the law.
“There is not a scintilla of evidence in the Fourth Estate publication that shows that the use of sole sourcing for the said Big Push road projects was unjustified or that there were any breaches of the law or abuse of the process,” he stated.
The NDC, Gyamfi explained, has simply continued projects initiated by the previous government, including 23 road projects awarded through sole-sourcing with no dedicated funding.
“23 out of 84 Big Push road projects, such as Suame Interchange, Ofankor- Nsawam, Adenta- Dodowa, etc. are inherited road projects that were all awarded by the previous NPP government through sole-sourcing with no dedicated funding,” he said.
Gyamfi maintained there is a vast difference between the reasonable use of sole-sourcing and the abuse of the same process which he claimed, was exhibited by the opposition New Patriotic Party when it was in power.
He explained that “In opposition, the NDC never said sole-sourcing was a sin or unlawful. We only preached against the unjustified use and abuse of sole-sourcing in the award of government projects, some of which were established by the Auditor General to be inflated”.
He added that “In fact, some of us cited audit findings of the Auditor General to show that sole-sourced cocoa road projects, some of which were awarded to Bawumia’s brother were inflated”
Gyamfi emphasized that the NDC remains committed to responsible governance, prioritizing transparency and accountability in government procurement processes.
