By Elsie Appiah-Osei
Accra, July 20, GNA – Mr Francis Asenso Boakye, the Minister of Roads and Highways, has tasked the new Board of the Road Fund Management to focus on road maintenance across the country.
He said that while governments had invested in the construction of new roads over the years, there had been insufficient investment in maintenance; a culture that had resulted in many roads deteriorating faster than they should.
Mr Asenso-Boakye made the remarks in Accra while swearing in Mr Frank Annoh-Dompreh, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Nsawam-Adoagyiri, as the new Board Chairman of Road Fund Management.
Mr Annoh-Dompreh, also the Majority Chief Whip, joined the 13-member Board along with Mr Kwesi Agyei, Acting Controller and Accountant-General, and Mr Amin Addul Rahaman, Chief Director of the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation, and Rural Development.
The appointment of the three to the Board became necessary following the resignation of three Board members, including the former chairman.
A letter signed by Nana Asante Bediatuo, the Secretary to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo announced Mr Annoh-Dompreh’s appointment as the Board Chairman of the Road Fund Management.
The appointment according to the Secretary to the President was pursuant to section 3(2) of the Road Fund (Amendment) Act, 2016, (Act 909).
Mr Asenso-Boakye said: “Because of financial constraints, maintenance has suffered but we believe that we cannot just be constructing without maintaining them and as a result, I’m charging members of the Board that there is a new policy shift to focus on maintenance.”
“Therefore, 60 per cent of proceeds from the Road Fund should go into maintenance so that we can protect what we have already done whilst we look for alternative financing for more road development,” he said.
In this regard, he stated that the Board’s efforts should be focused on road maintenance to protect the integrity of existing roads.
According to Mr Asenso-Boakye, the government had invested heavily in the road sector, adding more than 12,000 kilometres in 2017, surpassing any previous government in the country’s history.
On behalf of the new Board members, Mr Annoh-Dompreh stated that they would do everything possible to ensure that the road sector benefited Ghanaians.
“We are not going to take our work lightly and it’s not going to be business as usual. The work begins now,” he said.
Mr Annoh-Dompreh pledged the new board’s commitment to working with the minister of finance to ensure that necessary funds were released on time to complete road projects.
GNA