The National Communications Officer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) says the vice president's claim that Mahama's government used $260 million to construct the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange is a “barefaced lie.”

Sammy Gyamfi said Dr Mahamudu Bawumia added the cost of two separate and distinct projects [i.e the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange and the Ring Road Flyover] yet created the impression it was the cost of the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange.

Speaking at NDC’s Weekly Press Briefing, he said that Dr Bawumia engaged in a comparison of two projects that have different scope of works and specifications.

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At a town hall meeting on Tuesday, Dr Bawumia said the NDC government constructed the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange at a cost of $260 million while four interchanges constructed by the NPP government cost $289 million.

But reacting to this, Mr Gyamfi said the claim is false as Dr Bawumia has lumped the cost of two different projects together.

“It is important to emphasise that, the two projects (the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange and the Ring Road Flyover) are distinct from each other and were separately approved by Parliament at different periods for different purposes.

“The scope of work of the two projects are totally different, and so it is disingenuous and shameful for Dr. Bawumia to lump the cost of the two projects together and create the impression that same is inflated."

According to Mr Gyamfi, the cost of the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange project as approved by Parliament in 2014 and expended by the contractor is 74.8 million euros equivalent to $90 million at the time.

However, two years after the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange had been approved by Parliament and construction of the project commenced, the Mahama government on October 14, 2014, laid before Parliament another export credit facility for the design and construction of another project, the Ring Road Flyover, at a cost $170 million.

He said this transaction was approved on 2nd October 2014 by the 6th Parliament of the Republic of Ghana with the full support of the NPP.

He, therefore, he does not see the need for the incumbent government to peddle falsehood about the project.