Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Sulemana Braimah, has called on the Ministry of Roads and Highways to publicly release details of the more than 1,300 road contracts it says were awarded through competitive tendering.

His demand follows comments by Minister of State for Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, who defended the government's procurement record under the Big Push road infrastructure programme.

Speaking at the Government Accountability Series in Accra on Monday, June 15, Mr. Kwakye Ofosu rejected claims by The Fourth Estate and the MFWA that the Roads Ministry relied excessively on sole-sourcing in awarding contracts.

The minister argued that an investigative report by The Fourth Estate focused on only a fraction of the ministry's activities and did not present a complete picture of its procurement practices.

According to him, the Ministry of Roads and Highways awarded 1,441 contracts between 2025 and 2026, with 1,301 of them procured through open competitive bidding. He said this represented 90.28 percent of all contracts awarded during the period.

However, reacting to the government's position during an interview, Mr. Braimah questioned the figures and challenged the ministry to provide evidence to support its claims.

He urged the Roads Ministry to publish the full list of projects awarded through competitive tendering to allow for independent verification and public scrutiny.

Mr. Braimah noted that the contracts examined by The Fourth Estate involved major infrastructure projects, including high-value road and bridge developments under the Big Push initiative.

He also described the government's response to the investigation as disappointing, insisting that the findings were based on official records relating to projects executed under the programme.

According to him, the concerns raised by the report should not be dismissed but rather subjected to careful examination in the interest of transparency and accountability.

The Fourth Estate's investigation reviewed 107 contracts awarded under the Big Push programme between August 2025 and February 2026. The report found that 81 of those contracts—approximately 76 percent—were awarded through sole-sourcing, raising questions about compliance with procurement regulations.

The differing interpretations offered by government officials and the MFWA have intensified debate over procurement methods used under the Big Push initiative, with both sides standing by their respective analyses of the contract data.