We cannot depend solely on budget to construct quality roads - Deputy Minister

Deputy Roads and Highways Minister Mr Kwabena Owusu Aduomi, says the challenges confronting the nation in maintaining and constructing quality roads is the lack of finances.

Mr Aduomi, speaking an interview with Kwame Tutu said, the lack of funds has also affected the maintenance of existing roads which are deplorable state across the country. ‘’We are unable to maintain our roads due to lack of funds.

We will need to devote enough resources to maintain our roads. Every government including the governing NPP must invest in the roads sector,’’ he said. The tour by the president to the various regions he stated revealed one major request from the traditional rulers and that was the call on government to repair the deplorable nature of their roads.

Government he announced is committing resources to convert all unmotorable roads to motorable roads. The ministry he lamented does not get their projected budget and usually get half of the amount; a situation he said makes it difficult for them to work.

He called for an urgent need for the country to find other innovative ways to fund road projects because relying on budget alone will not be effective. ‘’Ghana has over 74,000 Kilometers of road but we’ve only managed to asphalt just about 23 per cent.

Meaning, all the remaining percentage are gravel roads and when it rains, some are unable to ply them. We have a huge deficit to work on. We may consider using our oil resources to repair our deplorable roads.

Majority of our roads are in deplorable state and we will need to invest a lot of money to work on them,’’ he charged. He revealed to the host that, majority of the contractors are being owed and so they are unable to move to their respect locations to work.

The previous administration left over 4 billion Ghana cedis debt between the road and consolidated fund, he said. That of COCOBOD is about 5 billion Ghana cedis, he added. ‘’Government is facing a huge challenge. We will need to clear all these debts before we can get the work done,’’ he concluded.