President Nana Akufo-Addo has revealed that his government is close to clearing all the debts owed contractors which he inherited from the Mahama-administration.
“I have been urged to pay contractors, I am paying them. In 2017 nearly 1 billion cedis of which the government of Ghana provided 305 million and the road fund provided some 660 million of the 1.6 billion owed contractors was cleared,” he stated.
The president was addressing journalists in his second media encounter at the Flagstaff House on Wednesday.
This appears to be an indirect response to former President Mahama who accused him of reneging on his promise to pay contractors who executed various government projects within 100 days in office. READ MORE
The president had earlier noted that his government inherited a “distress economy choked with debts”, which prompted him to do things differently.
Enumerating some of the things done by his government to protect the public purse, President Akufo-Addo stated:
“We have to subject 8 billion cedis of arrears bequeath to us in the beginning of 2017 to a process of audit review and validation,” he stated.
He revealed that the Audit Service satisfied “payment to the tune of 5.5 billion cedis and rejected about 5.7 billion cedis, representing a potential saving of 51 percent of these outstanding commitments”.
This, President Akufo-Addo said, “shows the validity of our criticisms that so much of contracts awarded in the Mahama era were inflated and apparently in some cases were non-existent.
“I have promised to protect the public purse and I am doing just that some of the contracts signed under Mahama.”
By Isaac Essel |3news.com |Ghana