WRITINGS FROM GLU

Sharing some private conversation going on here if anybody can contribute regarding the construction accounting of Ghana’s roads since the NDC days till now.:



Mike wrote:

“Yes, you are right about the roads in Kumasi, Sekondi-Takoradi and Accra being rehabilitated under Rawlings's watch; it all started in the late 1980s before I left Ghana in 1988.

My mentor, the Director of Building and Roads Research Institute (BRRI of the CSIR) was technical advisor of the East German company, Limex Bao giving them expert

advice on laterite soils his area of expertise as a Geotechnical engineer.” ( Michael Gyamerah, Sunday, June 20, 2010 4:45 AM)

It’s true Rawlings had some roads built.

Question is : can we define coal tar on sand as roads? That is what it seems to me most of the time! Even our highways!

Note some are well built.

POINT then is: Why can’t the President appoint an outside auditor to investigate for each road, how much was assigned, quality of the road built, and how much money was spent. This is one area that will bring forth the corrupt practices in the greatest waste of our public funds, road construction! We spend billions of dollars and every few years we repeat the same cycle. We are mostly indebted because of such contracts that are never completed well and we still paying the loans on them!!



If there is a way we can see the total report of roads built during a period of 1989-94 time it will shed a lot of light for me on the $4.2 billion loan for Asphalt-concrete roads and I will be

very happy to read it and give credit where credit is due..



I know for sure the 1990 road Accra to Kumasi which was nicely built and I even praised Rawlings for, was I total ruins in 1992 when I returned home and was driving on the same roads!

So I’d love to know where and how the moneys were used and why the contractors put tar on sand roads!



Mike, I’d appreciate if your former mentor could help us find the truth about the quality of roads built versus money spent.

I just don’t see how a small nation of Ghana can spend $4.2 Billion on roads, of perhaps less than 500 miles total length, when in America at the time it was estimated our multi-lane highways, built with solid Asphalt and concrete, and some lasting over 20-50 years (resurfaced every 4-5 years) were costing about $1 million per mile and Ghana cannot use $4,200 Million to build roads.

It’s a mystery to me that I’d love to have resolved in my life time.