General News of Wednesday, 11 March 2026
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
The Deputy Minister of Finance, Thomas Nyarko Ampem, has flagged 35 contractors under the government’s "Agenda 111" project for failing to deliver on construction work despite receiving US$ 7.9 million in taxpayer funds.
During his presentation of reports of the Auditor-General on Arrears and Payables as at the end of 2024 in Parliament, on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, Nyarko Ampem said an audit of projects under Agenda 111 exposed major irregularities in the utilisation of funds paid to contractors.
According to him, the audit established that the US$7.9 million was paid to the contractors as advance mobilisation to enable them to begin construction works on several hospital projects across the country.
Ampem also indicated that the findings showed that some of the contractors have not mobilised to their respective sites, while in other instances, the work completed does not correspond to the value of the funds already disbursed.
“Mr Speaker, the audit of Agenda 111 projects also revealed that a total amount of US$7.9 million was paid to 35 contractors as advance mobilisation under the programme, but these contractors have either failed to mobilise to the site or the work done is not commensurate with the amount paid,” he said.
He also noted that the advance mobilisation guarantees secured from the contractors at the time the payments were made have all expired, raising concerns about the government’s ability to immediately rely on the guarantees to recover the funds.
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SO/AE