The Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Sulemana Braimah, has challenged the Ministry of Roads and Highways to publish the full list of more than 1,000 road projects it claims were awarded through competitive tendering.
His comments come in response to remarks by the Minister of Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, who defended the procurement practices of the Ministry of Roads and Highways under the government’s Big Push road infrastructure programme.
Addressing the Government Accountability Series in Accra on Monday, June 15, Kwakye Ofosu rejected allegations by The Fourth Estate and the MFWA that procurement laws had been breached through the excessive use of sole-sourcing. He argued that the findings of an investigative report by The Fourth Estate did not reflect the ministry’s broader procurement activities.
According to the minister, a total of 1,441 road projects were awarded by the Ministry of Roads and Highways in 2025 and 2026, with 1,301 of them awarded through open competitive tendering, representing 90.28 per cent of all contracts.
Speaking in an interview with Umaru Sanda Amadu on Monday on Citi FM’s Eyewitness News, Braimah questioned the government’s figures and challenged the Roads Ministry to make public details of the projects it cited.
“I am challenging the Ministry of Roads to publish the full list of the 1,000-plus projects that they claim they have awarded and let us see whether that would amount to anywhere close to the amount being discussed,” he said.
Braimah argued that the contracts examined by The Fourth Estate involved major infrastructure projects worth hundreds of millions of cedis, including bridge projects under the Big Push initiative.
“We are talking about projects that are hundreds of millions of cedis. We are not talking about contracts for road markings, clearing of road medians or filling potholes. If you add all those smaller contracts and say you have awarded more than 1,000 projects, that is a different matter,” he stated.
He further described the government’s response to the report as “embarrassing and disappointing.”
“I’ve read it on other platforms, and I would want to believe that whatever was put out there is a true reflection of what the minister said. If it is so, then I think it is quite embarrassing and very disappointing,” Braimah said.
He maintained that the MFWA and The Fourth Estate based their findings on official records relating to projects captured under the Big Push programme and insisted that the issues raised in the report deserved serious consideration.
The Fourth Estate’s report, however, analysed 107 Big Push contracts awarded between August 2025 and February 2026 and found that 81 of them, representing about 76 per cent, were awarded through sole-sourcing.
The exchange adds to the ongoing debate over procurement practices under the Big Push initiative, with government officials and the MFWA offering differing interpretations of the data on road contract awards.
