By Amoako Kwame
The Communications Director for the United Party, Solomon Owusu, has defended government’s Big Push contracts initiative amid criticisms from the Minority in Parliament.
His defence follows an article published by The Fourth Estate on March 24, which indicated that government has indulged in sole-sourcing of contracts, although while in opposition they chastised the same action.
Speaking on TV3’s Newday segment, the Communications Director for the United Party stated the requirements for sole-sourced contracts to be awarded and added that he liked the requirement of being Ghanaian.
“This whole Big Push project, when the President was cutting the sod at Afienya, he gave certain reasons why they would settle on a particular contractor; there he was doing restrictive tendering. Three things were listed as requirements: speed, highest quality, and being Ghanaian. A lot of the guys over here are wheelbarrow contractors. The Big Push—is it not Ghanaians he awarded? I am always for contracts given to Ghanaians, no matter what. When I go for a tender and it is given to a foreigner, for the rest of our lives we will wear one pant.”
He also lauded the performance of the Minister of Roads, Governs Kwame Agbodza, regarding dealings with sole-sourced contracts.
“They used their internal staff to beat the contract values down. I will do further verification; if it is indeed true, then Agbodza has done something monumental. They used their internal engineers to do the design, to do surveying, and to do the costing, and because of that, they reduced the cost of contracting by 5%.”
