Government has stated that the Ministry of Roads and Highways did not breach any procurement laws in the award of contracts under the Big Push infrastructure programme, insisting that the use of single-source procurement was fully compliant with the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663) as amended.

This follows The Fourth Estate's exposé on procurement processes related to contracts awarded under the government’s Big Push programme.

At a press briefing on Monday, June 15, Government Spokesperson and Minister for Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, said a 72-page presidential review report concluded that the Ministry’s procurement decisions were lawful and justified under urgent national circumstances.

He stressed that the findings confirmed adherence to established procurement procedures in the execution of the programme.

“The Ministry of Roads and Highways did not breach any procurement laws by using the single-source procurement process prescribed in the Public Procurement Act 2003, that is, Act 663 as amended,” he stated.

According to him, the justification for the use of single sourcing in 47.14% of Big Push contracts was rooted in the design and objectives of the programme as outlined in the 2024 NEC manifesto and subsequent government policy pronouncements.

He explained that the Big Push initiative was conceived as an accelerated infrastructure programme aimed at addressing severe road deficits, creating jobs, and supporting economic growth through rapid project delivery.

The report identified several strategic factors that informed the decision to adopt single sourcing in specific cases. These included accelerated infrastructure delivery, with government seeking to rapidly scale and modernise the national road network beyond the pace of conventional procurement processes.
“A call to rapidly scale and modernize the national road network,” the report noted.

Procurement efficiency was also cited, with comparative analysis suggesting that competitive bidding processes would have introduced delays that could worsen hardship in communities relying on those road networks.

“Comparative timeline analysis indicating that alternative bidding processes would introduce significant delays which would only serve to exacerbate the suffering of people living in communities with these roads,” he explained.

Mr Kwakye Ofosu further referenced public and national security considerations, noting concerns about the condition of key transport corridors and their broader implications.

Fiscal risk mitigation was also highlighted as a key factor, particularly the need to prevent cost escalations driven by inflation and delays in project execution.

Mr Kwakye Ofosu noted that despite the use of single sourcing in selected contracts, competitive tendering remained the dominant procurement method within the sector.

According to the report, the 47.14% single-source awards applied to 140 specialised Big Push contracts, which represent only 4.5% of the total 1,441 road sector contracts awarded by the Ministry of Roads and Highways.

He argued that this statistical context demonstrates that competitive procurement remained the baseline approach and that the use of single sourcing did not amount to a systemic breach or abuse of procurement rules.

“The Ministry followed the procedure required by law in awarding the Big Push contracts system. Neither did they abuse the single-source process,” he stated.