The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has alleged that two lucrative cocoa road projects, cumulatively valued at GH₵83 million, were awarded to Resource Access Limited, a company owned by the brother of Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, in 2020.

According to Sammy Gyamfi, the National Communications Officer of the NDC, these contracts were granted through sole-sourcing rather than a competitive bidding process, resulting in inflated costs.

Gyamfi identified the projects as the upgrading of the Assin Akropong – Odomasi – Asibrem road (22.18km) and the Kyibosohasowodze bungalow feeder road (14.50km).

He detailed that the contract for the Assin Akropong – Odomasi – Asibrem road was awarded at a value of GH₵54,263,718.64, while the Kyibosohasowodze feeder road was valued at GH₵29,468,546.54.

“Apart from the overpriced Sunyani Airport Phase One rehabilitation project, two juicy cocoa road projects were also awarded to Bawumia’s brother’s company, Resource Access Limited through sole-sourcing at an inflated cumulative cost of GH₵83 million in the year 2020,” Gyamfi claimed.

He further argued that these single-sourced projects were found by the Auditor-General to be "overpriced and awarded in breach of the Public Procurement Law, thus, causing the nation huge financial losses."

Gyamfi referenced paragraph 65 of a Performance Audit Report by the Auditor-General on the construction of cocoa roads, which stated: “COCOBOD did not rigorously analyse its procurement options for value for money but sought approval from PPA for single sourcing and restricted tendering, thus procuring contracts which were up to three times more expensive than they could have obtained through competitive tendering.”

The NDC’s allegations raise concerns about transparency and accountability in the awarding of government contracts, particularly those involving significant sums of money.