The Minority in Parliament has alleged that the government plans to cancel or suspend sixty ongoing projects across the country as part of its domestic debt exchange program.
In the 2023 budget, Ken Ofori-Atta announced a halt in capital projects as part of revenue rationalization measures.
Speaking to journalists, Minority Chief Whip Governs Kwame Agbodza stated that the projects’ suspension would result in the loss of approximately 3 million jobs, emphasizing the need for the government to be transparent about the terms of the IMF deal.
Mr. Agbodza told the Parliamentary Press Corps, “as we sit here, a series of meetings have taken place with a close group of people in the NPP where about sixty projects and programmes are going to either be suspended or cancelled. The Obetsebi Lamptey road extension, the La and Shama General Hospital projects, the Tema Motorway Road project, and the Adomi Bridge project is among them.”
He also claimed that the government had made payments to some of the contractors without receiving the necessary approval to begin these projects.
“You will be surprised this government paid some of the developers 15 percent to 20 percent mobilization fees and the contractors are sitting in their offices drinking tea because the government is unable to tell them whether to go ahead because the Finance Minister basically asked them to suspend all those projects and we are currently losing value because the contractors have taken the money and no work is currently going on.”
He also demanded transparency in the decisions to suspend or cancel these projects.
“What are the underlying principles of the selection of the projects the NPP wants to cancel, suspend or go ahead with?” he questioned.
“We all have to have an understanding of this because the lack of understanding creates anxiety.”
“There are financiers, developers, sub-developers, contractors, suppliers, and ordinary workers with these entities who will lose their jobs permanently and I project that this may lead to three million job losses,” he further explained.
