Yaw Osafo-Maafo
The Senior Minister has dismissed suggestions that the government deliberately ignored roads in the Volta Region in the 2020 budget.
Yaw Osafo-Maafo, reacting to the concerns, said even he was taken aback when he noticed every region had road projects listed in the budget except the so-called world bank of the governing party’s biggest opposition.
“It was obviously a mistake,” Mr. Osafo-Maafo clarified, adding that he had conferred with the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, who confirmed roads in the Volta Regions have been budgeted for by the government, he told Accra-based Citi FM.
“For the whole Eastern Corridor road we are doing, most parts of it will be done in 2020. A lot of the Eastern Corridor road passes through the Volta Region so you cannot talk about roads in 2020 without talking about the Volta Region,” the Minister said.
Outspoken MP from North Tongu in the Volta Region, Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa, had posted on Facebook asking how the government could justify such an “aberration.”
“Why is provision not made in the 2020 Budget for critical road projects in the case of only the Volta Region…How does the Akufo-Addo Administration expect, particularly, MPs from the Volta Region to explain this to our constituents,” Ablakwa wrote.
Meanwhile, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, delivering the 2020 budget statement in Parliament on Wednesday stressed the government’s focus on the road network in the country.
He said, “to get the road sector moving and contractors back to work, government will pay 80% of all contractors.”
He said COCOBOD has also secured funds to continue with ongoing and new cocoa roads.
–myjoyonline