We do not discriminate when it comes to payment - Amoako-Atta

Minister-designate for Roads and Highways, Kwesi Amoako Atta, has rejected claims that in the payment of debts owed road contractors in the country, his outfit has been applying a targeted and selective approach in paying off monies.

He said that while there is no doubt that outstanding payments for contractors in the country are enormous, it is not true that they are not exercising fairness.

Responding to a question posed to him by Ranking Member on the Committee, Haruna Iddrisu, on when contractors will be paid, during his vetting, Kwesi Amoako Atta said that the ministry was making every effort to clear outstanding payments first.

"I will not sit down here and say that all contractors in this country have been paid on schedule even though the government in the past 4 years has made great efforts to pay them for the good work they render to the good people of this country.

"It is not in the interest of government and this country to delay payment because of the huge interest delayed payments accrued. Contractors are supposed to be paid within 90 from when certificate is made and we continue to follow strict payment regime. We have been very very fair and we do not discriminate," he explained.

He further explained the strategy being used to pay off contractors from as far back as 2012.

“We try to do age analysis of the certificates and it is usually first in, first out, and we have been paying contractors from as far back as 2012 when we came into office. We cleared all those outstanding and we are around 2018 or so now," he said.

He however stated that there is a possibility that even for years they have cleared, there could be some contractors who may have been skipped.

"I have stated that as much as possible, we pay and follow the principle of first in, first out, but I will not be surprised if there are few outstanding certificates," he said.

He stated however that due to the obvious challenges that the coronavirus has caused to the economy, it has slowed down their pace at making payments but gave assurances that they will all smile soon.

“But let us not lose sight of the difficulty we all went through due to coronavirus and how the resources of the nation went down and affected negatively on the payment regime. We hope to see an improvement very soon," he explained.

Kwesi Amoako Atta was re-nominated after serving a full term under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's first term in office.