Sole-Sourcing for Big Push: The Gulf Between Promise and Delivery

Right at the start of his second term in office, President John Mahama pledged to eliminate sole-sourcing, suggesting a push for new legislation to end the practice of awarding public contracts without competitive bidding. It was a bold promise, framed as part of a broader effort to improve transparency and accountability in government procurement.

But an investigation by The Fourth Estate suggests a gap between policy and practice. Looking closely at contracts under the government’s flagship Big Push infrastructure programme, reporters found that more than half were awarded through sole-sourcing — the very approach the President has vowed to abolish.

The findings have already drawn attention at the highest level and sparked fresh questions about how major public projects are being executed.

In this episode, The Fourth Estate editor Kwaku Krobea Asante breaks down the investigation, explains how the contracts were tracked, and reflects on what this means for procurement reform in Ghana.

Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:07

From the Media Foundation for West Africa, this is the fourth estate podcast, Anina Krovis Matabe. Hello and welcome. Among President Mohammed's amuities for his second term in office is restricting the abuse of soul sources, which is the practice where contracts are warded without opening them up for competitive bidding. During his State of the Nation address to Parliament in February 2026, the President said, Mr.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Speaker, by bringing legislation to this house, preventing procurement processes. By banning soul source contracts, except in exceptional circumstances.

SPEAKER_06 0:52

The fourth estate journalist Queko Krabia Sante, Seth Bobby, and William Jalula have been combing through contracts for the Big Push and reports that more than half of them were soul sourced. Keku Krabia Sante joins me to share some highlights of the investigation. Keku, welcome to the podcast. Thank you very much, Need. You're welcome. So let's start this way. For those who might probably have forgotten a little bit about what the Big Push is, can you just refresh our memory of what the Big Push project is all about?

SPEAKER_04 1:24

Well, um, we got to know about the big push during the campaigning period ahead of the 2024 elections, when President Mahama and the NDC presented it as uh one of the flagship projects that they would be implementing when they're giving the note to rule the country, which is building roads, a massive road construction project or program that will be rolled out across all 16 regions in the country. So essentially the big push project is building roads in Ghana.

SPEAKER_06 1:58

Okay. So you have published this investigative report, uh, which shows that more than half of these were source sourced. How did you come by the data that you used in your investigation and what for you were like the key findings in your investigations?

SPEAKER_04 2:15

Well, um, maybe just adding up from the previous question and then coming to this. The big push program, as I have said, Government's flagship project, when President Mahama came into power, his first State of the Nation address, he announced it that it will be an executive flagship project that they are going to implement across the country. And that in the implementation of the big push, they were going to do things differently when it comes to the awarding of the contract, which is to say that they were going to minimize, and those are his words.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

Mr. Speaker will minimize soul source procurement to encourage competition, competitive bidding, and enhance public transparency in the procurement processes.

SPEAKER_04 2:58

Now, the contest is that the previous government had been accused by the ruling party when they were in opposition that they had relied too much on soul sourcing, and you know, that was a signal that there was so much corruption. They said that soul sourcing is the reason why we are not able to complete many road projects that are left, you know, unattended to in Ghana. You see a contractor comes close to a road, sometimes they clear the whole thing, start the pavements, you know, and things like that. And the next moment you don't find them. They said it's because of soul sourcing. They said the inflated road contract sum that we hear, a lot of it are from soul sourcing. Okay. Sami Jenfield, who's now the CEO of Goodwatch, said it. Samuel Kuju to Ablack, who is now the foreign affairs minister. In fact, he actually was on record to have said that when they come, they want to even blot out the whole single source or source thing from Ghana's procurement laws. And then the current minister of roads and highways, Kwame Gavin Saboja, then a leading member of the Transport Committee, a ranking member of the Transport Committee, then in Parliament, also said that this is one of the reasons that Ghana is having problems with this road construction. So, with this contest, is what they set out to do the big push agenda, right? So, just one year into power, started implementing the project, the fourth estate decided to look into it based on some signals we have picked from our sources that you guys may want to pay attention to this uh big push project that the government is implementing and ask questions about how the contracts have been awarded. Of course, when we looked at the government's rhetoric on you know restricting the use of sour sourcing and all the nail that had been pedaled around, it was something that was quite interesting for us. So, what we did was to send an LTI request, a right-to-information request to the Ministry of Roads and Highways. This was on December 9th, 2025. So we sent it out, but we did not get any response. The law gives you 14 days for them to respond to it. We didn't get any response, it was getting closer to Christmas, so we decided to put a pause to it, go for the break and come back. Then um in January, you know, we decided to follow up on it by sending an internal appeal. According to the RTI law, when you don't receive any response from the ministry, you assume that they have denied you access to information. So in fact or in law, they denied us the information. So we send an appeal, you know, appealing to the um to the head of the institution, which is in this case the minister. Okay. Whilst we were doing that, we thought that you know what, let us send similar requests to its agencies. In any case, they are all independent bodies that can give you information. So we send a similar request to the Ghana Highway Authority, and we send a similar request to the Department of Urban Roads asking for the same thing. Give us the data on the list of the big push contracts, right? Give us the award dates, the commencement date, the completion dates, who are the beneficiary contractors, and um what is the sum, contract sum of the various contracts, and then give us copies of the contract documents for all that you have done. So we send these requests out while sending out the internal appeal. We did the request to the Department of Urban Roads and the Ghana Highways Authority. Great. Then they all started responding to us, including the ministry. The ministry, yes, the ministry wrote to us to say um after our appeal that we we we acknowledge receipts, we are putting together your your request. Please give us some time because of the volume, and then we'll let you have it. This was February 11th. Okay, right? Then February 23, the Ghana Highway Authority, this is 2026. I mean, Highway Authority writes to us to say, hey, here's the information that you requested, right? Fine attached. So they send they sent us in or um some 96 road projects, you know, that uh they uh have in their records out of these lists of road projects, eight of them were separated from their own data to show that these are road projects that we came to meet from the ethwild government, and indeed it was shown from the award date. You could see 2022, you could see 2023, you could see 2024. The remaining ones were 2025 road projects. Okay. Right? And then indicating that they are still compiling the copies of the contrast that we had because it's quite voluminous, and so when it's ready, they will alert us. Then the Ministry of Roads and Highways called us. In fact, in their letter they had sent to us, they had mentioned that we should give them time and that when it is ready, they will call us to come and pick it up. So one of our colleagues says went to pick the data. And the data the Ministry of Roads and Highways gave us was the same as the data that the Ghana Highways Authority had given us 98-98. But the Ministry of Roads and Highways added two extra sheets. One is from the Department of Urban Roads, 16 contracts that the Department of Urban Roads had also given out, also under big push. Then they gave us an extra three from the feeder roads. So the feeder roads department had given us three contracts, the Department of Urban Roads had given 16 contracts, and then the Ministry of Urban Roads and Highways had 96. But after that 96, you take eight out of it. So eventually, when we put everything together, we had 107 road contracts under the big push. This is excluding the eight that we put aside because the eight was not awarded under this current government. So uh the the way we came by the data was really from the Ministry of Roads and Highways, from the Ghana Highway Authority, you know, the Department of Urban Roads and Federal Roads. Then we decided to do the analysis to see if indeed the information we had picked up was indeed the case. Were they keeping to their promise, the pledge, the commitment they had made to Ghanaians again and again? President Mahama had repeated it twice that they are going to stop the abuse of soul sourcing in the two state of the nation addresses that he has delivered since he came in. Right? President Mahama had also said it at the national economic dialogue in March 2025 that again he was not going to continue with soul sourcing but open to competitive tendering. And in fact, the leader, the majority leader of parliament, had actually stated categorically on the floor of parliament that the era of soul sourcing is dead. So when we got this data, we say, okay, now let us test them to their own ways and do the analysis. And strangely, the 107 road contracts that were given, 81 of those road contracts had been given on soul source basis. I hear some of the technical people say there's a difference between single source and source. We hear you. But we are journalists, we work with the information that the institution that has the engineers has given us. They had indicated soul source. Okay. 81. The remaining 26 out of the 107 were given on restrictive tendering basis, which is to say, none of the road contracts was given on a competitive tendering basis. A complete departure from the rhetoric that they had maintained when they were in opposition, from the promise, the pledge, the commitment that President Mahama, the majority leader of parliament, the minister, and all the other appointees had given to Ghanaians. This was essentially the crust of the story that we published.

SPEAKER_06 11:25

So when the Roads and Highways Minister Kamea Boja, in defending his outfit against the story, says that the contracts were procured predominantly through restrictive tendering to ensure rapid project commencement, per the language they used, not even everything was restrictive tendering, because from what you're saying, per the language, 80 plus was soul sourced, and then the other was restrictive to yes, we actually suspect that the minister himself was not on top of the data that his own ministry you know had or had given to us.

SPEAKER_04 12:06

So on the day we published the story, which is on the on the 24th of uh March, on that same day, he rushed to parliament to make the defense. But before he would rush to parliament, he had caused his ministry to publish a counter data on the ministry's website. And I'm and I must state emphatically that prior to we publishing, they didn't have any data on the big push program on on their website. Oh, okay. So that's interesting. Yes, so when we published, they quickly rushed to upload uh a certain data, ostensibly to try and counter the narrative that we had put out there.

SPEAKER_06 12:51

Was it the like the hundred-plus projects, or this was probably just some of them?

SPEAKER_04 12:56

So, what they did was to say this is the data we have 54 road projects, you know, that constitute the big push that they had come to sign, which is the current government, and then they put 23 back to say this is 23 road projects that we came to meet, which we are including to the big push, right? Totally different from what they had given us when we wrote to them, you know, through the right to information law. But then he he put it out there on their website and then rushed to the floor of parliament to say, you know, um they had given the data on restrictive tendering basis, you know, and the same thing he said to us when we're working on the story when we reached out to him for a comment, right? And to say Mr.

SPEAKER_03 13:44

Speaker, there's previous information online that 76% number of ministers just go ahead and project when full source is also false, only about 44% of those projects were procured through social source.

SPEAKER_04 13:59

We found like 70 we found 76 percent. What is interesting is that the data that the ministry put out in that facade of transparency, they did not include the procurement type, which was an extremely important point because the core of the conversation that we had put out was that we're giving contracts, the procurement type you were relying on was sour source. But when they published their data, they failed to indicate what procurement type that they had given. But he was out there saying 44%, and you raised a lot of questions. What number did you give out on single source competitive tendering? They failed to produce any any like that. But we decided to help the minister pick his 54 and come and compare it to the data that his ministry and agencies had given to us. And when we did the analysis, 47 of the 54 he had put out was so sourced, you know. Again. Again, yes, because you know, they had given us what looked like like a master sheet on their own, on their own root contracts. Yeah, pick some of them and come and put it on their website. So we did the analysis for them. 47 out of the 54 were on soul source basis, and seven was on restrictive tendering, again, affirming our report that none of those contracts they had given out was given out on competitive tendering basis. And now the data, you know, was moving from seven to six percent, as we had reported, to about eight to seven percent, which is more than which is more than that.

SPEAKER_06 15:30

You've used um this the different types of tendering, so maybe if you could explain it to us because apparently it looks like that's what the experts would have us try to differentiate soul sourced, restrictive, and then competitive. What's the difference between the restrictive and these other types?

SPEAKER_04 15:45

Um, let me let me break it down to the layman's understanding, which is what we do as journalists. When we talk about competitive tendering, it's such that the government has a road project or any form of projects at all to give out. So we invite the general public who have the capacity to do something like that, i.e., build a school or build a road. Anyone who has that capacity, come to us. Before we do that, we'll announce to the public that we want to do a road project. We are looking at a contract sum to this effect. These are the specifications that we are looking for. Now bring your tendering. So company A will come with their own, you know, tender to say, okay, when we did our own calculation, given the quality we want to give you, we can produce that road for you at 105,000, or we can produce for you from 98. This one comes, this one says 79, this one says 82, this one says 110 or 109, what you know, and things like that. Then the the ministry or the government agency will sit back and say, okay, we have gone through, we look at who you are, your capacity, what you've done before, and then make a decision on who we give the contract to. Okay. Competitive tending means everybody come and so long as you feel you are capable, come and compete. Then there is restrictive. Restrictive is that okay, we are not opening it up to the general public, but the people who are inclined, who belong into the certain space, who we know have the capacity or to a certain threshold that we are looking for. We invite all of them and say, come and bid for this. Okay. Bring us your quotes to see if you can fit in. Then they also bring their quote, and then you do your own assessment and you choose one person and you give to them. Then there is single source, right? Also sourcing. The technical people would want to differentiate the two. But for the purposes of this conversation, let us box them into one, which is to say we will not do competitive tender, we will not put it out to the public, we will not call people who are inclined in the space for all of them to come together, you know, and vie for that uh contract. You will just pick one person and say, you need you are the only person that we want to come and work on this project. So there's it's not like you are even bidding. Exactly. We call you, we say we have a road project, this is the cost. Bring your own um own assessment, how you will want to do it, and let us see your cost, and then that's it. The fear is that the moment you begin to point out people, then it tends to be people you know, people who are friends, yeah, people who are connected to you. And in the past, people have analyzed the data to the point where you could begin to see families, friends, acquaintances, party people being given contracts, you know, to come and do one thing or another. And something that that needs stressing, the nature of contracting is such that just anybody can show up to come and take a contract, especially when it's a social. Because even if you're not a road contractor, if we call you and say form a company, come and take the road contract, you'll pick it up and go and get capable hands for them to go and get it. The fear is that if we give it to you at uh a hundred thousand, because that was what we analyzed that to do a good road, you need a hundred thousand. You will take it, and because you want to make your money from it, you go and look for a road contractor who will say, I can do this work for you at 60,000. You pocket 40,000, yeah, you give 60,000 to the road contractor. Mind you, in 60,000, the road contractor is also making his own profit because that's why we're doing business. So eventually, what would have gone into the road construction would have been somewhere around 30,000, 40,000, as against a road that ideally when we plan was supposed to do about 100 or 80,000. So you realize that then the quality surface, you know, very soon the road starts wearing. That is why you hear narratives that oh, they just blow this road and it's two months, and we are beginning to see it's because sometimes they give it on social and they give to cronies who will not have the capacity, you know, to go in and do all that. So those are the differences.

SPEAKER_06 20:19

Okay. So, um, before we wrap up, there are two questions I still want to ask. Um, one relating to the minister's reaction um about oh, this was given on restrictive tender basis. Was there even any justification? Have you found any justification from the ministry or the minister himself about why they, even if they say it's not single sourced or sole source, why they decided to go with restrictive rather than competitive?

SPEAKER_04 20:46

When we published our story, then affiliates, you know, and party people, including Sami Genfee, you know, Deputy Minister Sununi, and some other people started speaking up. And their justification really was that there's there's too much accident on our roads, people are dying on roads, and so they needed to build the roads as a matter of agency, and so that's why they give they gave the road contracts out on single source, which is really ridiculous. And then also added that they needed to make sure that they can do this, you know, within the period of their tenure so that they can wrap it up, which is still untenable, you know, because in 2021, when the current minister Kwame Gavin Sabuja was then a ranking member of the transport committee in parliament, they were questioning the Akufuado government for giving coco rules out on sources. They chastise them, accused them of being corrupt, accused them of doing this so that they could inflate uh contract some, doing this so that you know they could pocket monies or doing doing so. so that they could give the contrast up to their families and friends. At the time nobody nobody raised a concern about how road roads were killing you know people. Nobody raised a concern about how they needed to complete the road project during the their tenure. But now you come into power and you think that all of a sudden you are sympathetic to to Ghanaians who are dying on through road accidents and so you need to give road contracts out you know on competitive on social source and basis. So that is there. And then there's the other aspect of the argument of the conversation of public procurement authority where when you're doing single source you need to write to them to justify why you are doing that. And our checks show that they did that at least for the for those where we had copies of contracts they wrote to them and strangely the authority agreed to a lot of them in fact the ones we have seen so far the authority has agreed agreed to them raising questions about the essence of the public procurement authority in circumstances like this. Because the law puts them there so that they can raise the red flags and stop government institutions or state institutions from going this route you know and ensure that we stick to what the law says and indeed the law says that using single source or so source should be an exception yeah not a norm.

SPEAKER_06 23:27

Yeah as in like in cases of emergency and situations like that.

SPEAKER_00 23:32

But finally also President Mahama has been speaking since the report came out in this regard I note the recent expose by the fourth estate on procurement processes related to the award of contracts under the big push program while sourcing is legal under certain circumstances under our tenant procurement law would all agree that open transparent tenants are always preferable for achieving competitive pricing and value for money. Although we've seen sniffers of the investigation from the media I've instructed my office to obtain the full detailed report from the fourth estate. And to conduct a study of the various allegations presented in the report we're also requesting the Ministry of Roads and Highways to present a detailed response to those allegations made therein in order to inform government's action on the matter.

SPEAKER_06 24:22

I'm wondering looking at what probably the big picture forcing you to look into a crystal ball or something what do you envisage happens next?

SPEAKER_04 24:33

Well um yes two days ago the president um did that which is which is to say I have heard you we we think that that is a positive step so to say that the president has acknowledged you know the the work of investigative journalists and indeed wants to take a step that could look into the allegations and then you know take the necessary step as an organization and as an outlet we think that it is commendable um it's not every time that you get the president himself you know mentioning your name which is uh quite different from the approach of the minister when the minister went to the floor of parliament he wouldn't even mention us he called us uh certain online platform an online platform you see but the president calls us uh by a name they have seen the report from the fourth estate you know and in fact comes back to say it is really the the reason why you know he uh encourages uh civic participation you know the context of the of that meeting was meeting with civil society yeah so you know he makes the point to buttress you know his statement that it does this is why i i want to always engage you people this is why i i'm calling on you guys to always speak and and we think that it is a it is a big step forward so we submitted the the report to to the office of the president we are hoping that they get the time to look into it to go through the the various um findings that we present out there and hopefully take a necessary step that will indeed affirm that their resolve or the pledge that they have given to Ghanaians that they will not continue on abusing soul sourcing or do things differently so we have done that and we're looking forward to see to see what comes um next okay and uh when whenever there's a development of course we'll have you back here to explain further what has happened and it will be our greatest pleasure yeah all right asante thank you so much for your time with us on the podcast today pleasure and uh that's it for today I'm Nia Krofismatabi joining us again next time for another episode of the Fourth Estate podcast