Suhuyini: ‘Big Push’ Meant To Fix All Deplorable Road

“It is not lost on anyone that this is the single biggest intervention that a government has ever taken to address very deplorable roads, and it is so sad that over 60 years of independence, we can’t boast of any first-class road link to any of our major cities in this country. In fact, none of our major cities is linked to any good roads”.

These were the words of Deputy Minister for Roads and Highways, Alhassan Suhuyini, on Joy FM’s political show ‘Newsfile’ last Saturday when he described government Big Push infrastructure programme as the most far-reaching effort to address Ghana’s road challenges.

He maintained that the initiative is designed to tackle long-standing connectivity gaps, improve inter-city transport, and support economic activity, particularly in underserved regions.

In addition, he rejected claims that government infrastructure projects are largely awarded through sole sourcing, insisting that proper procurement processes are being followed in many cases.

“Not all works are procured through sole sourcing, and the evidence is there,” he said.

He further clarified that even within the Big Push programme, a significant number of projects have not been awarded through sole sourcing.

“Secondly, under this Big Push, not all of them were procured under sole sourcing. In fact, by our estimate, they (NPP) can disagree with it,” he stated.

Hon. Suhuyini acknowledged that even if a limited number of sole-sourced contracts had been awarded, it would not automatically imply corruption. At most, he noted, such a scenario could suggest inconsistencies in policy application rather than deliberate wrongdoing.

He stressed that procurement decisions are often influenced by specific project requirements, urgency, and technical considerations that may justify alternative approaches.

He further highlighted that historically, road infrastructure projects in Ghana were largely executed through sole sourcing. Against this backdrop, he argued that the current administration’s emphasis on competitive bidding represents a notable departure from past practices.

The awarding of over 400 contracts through open competition, he said, demonstrates a deliberate effort to reform procurement systems and promote fairness.

The Deputy Minister also questioned the framing of the allegations, particularly the assertion that the ministry had “become” a sole sourcing hub.

He pointed out that such language ignores the broader trajectory of procurement reforms and risks misleading the public about the ministry’s current direction.

A significant portion of Hon. Suhuyini’s response focused on what he described as flawed methodologies used in analyzing road project costs.

He cautioned against simplistic calculations that divide total project costs by road length to determine cost per kilometer.

According to him, such approaches fail to account for critical variables, including the scope of work, terrain, materials, and additional infrastructure components. To illustrate his point, he referenced comparisons made between past and current projects.

He noted that while a road project such as the Dode-Pepeso road may have cost €25 million in 2016, it would be misleading to directly compare that figure with present-day rehabilitation costs without considering inflation, expanded scope, and evolving engineering standards.

He also cited the example of a motorway originally constructed for approximately £4 million, which now requires an estimated $340 million for rehabilitation. This, he explained, underscores the complexity of infrastructure costing and the danger of drawing conclusions based on incomplete data.

Beyond construction costs, Mr. Suhuyini criticized the inclusion of unrelated expenses such as vehicles, office construction, and equipment in calculations of cost per kilometer.

He argued that aggregating these elements into a single figure distorts the true cost of road construction and creates a misleading narrative about inefficiency or overspending.