ACCRA, Oct 14 (The African Portal) – Ghana’s Minister for Roads and Highways, Kwame Governs Agbodza, says an audit of contractor payments helped the government prevent major financial losses.
His comments follow concerns from the Ghana Chamber of Construction Industry (GhCCI) about delays in releasing funds for outstanding Interim Payment Certificates (IPCs).
The Chamber had earlier warned that the prolonged delays were threatening thousands of jobs and stalling key infrastructure projects across the country.
In a letter dated September 29, 2025 and addressed to the minister, the Chamber expressed frustration over what it described as the government’s failure to honour President John Dramani Mahama’s pledge to clear all outstanding payments by the end of July 2025.
It said the delays had caused severe financial strain on contractors, consultants, suppliers, and other industry players.
Speaking on Citi FM’s Breakfast Show on Tuesday, Mr Agbodza said the ministry had taken time to thoroughly review and validate all certificates submitted by contractors during the transition period to ensure accuracy and accountability.
He disclosed that about GHS 5 billion had been paid to contractors after the completion of the audit and validation process.
“As of Friday, October 10, the Finance Minister started paying GHC5 billion owed to contractors out of the over GHC21 billion. The process was that the payment request may not be as it is,” he said.
He added: “The Auditor General and others carried out some validation of payments. If we had rushed to pay, we would have thrown away part of your money. Because during the validation, the amount we were told we owed is not exactly so.”
The minister said the size of arrears had grown significantly compared to the figures provided by the previous Akufo-Addo administration.
“At the time of transition, the previous government told us that the bills unpaid for contractors at the Government of Ghana (GoG) were GHC21 billion; today, I know it’s far more than that. The road fund indebtedness, they told us, was GHC5.1 billion,” he said.
He continued: “Today, I’m told it’s over GHC8 billion. GHC120 billion worth of projects were awarded, some of which didn’t even have commencement certificates. They didn’t even have an idea how the contractors were going to work. Indeed, some of the contractors never turned up on site since 2022 when the contract was awarded.”
Mr Agbodza said he had met with contractors and given assurances of the government’s commitment to settle the arrears.
“And we assured them that the government was going to work to make sure that we make payments to projects duly executed. Since then, the Finance Minister has been to Parliament to present the 2025 budget statement, and they have committed a certain amount of money to retire arrears.
“It is part of the arrears that led to the payment of over GHC800 million towards the Ofankor project, and we have seen the contractor back on site,” he said.
