Ghana's road agencies are so understaffed that projects are suffering quality problems — and the government knows it.
Roads and Highways Minister Kwame Governs Agbodza told Parliament's Select Committee on Economy and Development on Wednesday that his ministry has formally requested the recruitment of about 1,000 additional personnel. The goal: fix a staffing crisis that has left technical departments stretched beyond capacity.
According to Agbodza, the problem got worse when Ghana created six new administrative regions — but didn't hire more people to build and maintain roads in them. The existing staff were simply expected to cover more ground.
“The staffing level of the agencies is far less than what it should be. If you consider the fact that we are investing heavily on these projects, part of the reason some of the projects suffer quality assurance is simply because we don’t have enough people to monitor these projects,” he told the committee.
The shortage hits hardest among engineers, quality assurance officers, and other technical professionals — the very people who make sure roads are built properly and on time.
Agbodza revealed that the Ghana Highways Authority has already gotten approval to hire 137 new staff, including engineers and quality, safety and environmental officers. But he made clear that one agency alone can't solve the wider problem.
“We’ve got approval for 137 staff at various level, QSEs, engineers and everything, but that was just for highways. The chief director has since submitted a request for about 1,000, because don’t forget, we created six new regions and didn’t actually staff them with new staff,” he said.
The minister argued that when you pour public funds into road projects but don't have enough people to watch the work, corners get cut. He suggested that inadequate monitoring has already contributed to quality concerns on some projects.
The request comes as the government pushes ahead with major road construction and rehabilitation projects meant to improve connectivity and support the economy. But ministry officials insist those goals are impossible without enough human resources to oversee implementation and enforce technical standards.
Agbodza assured the committee that efforts are underway to fix the staffing gaps. He said stronger staffing levels would improve project monitoring, quality assurance, and overall service delivery in the road sector.
For now, though, the ministry is waiting for approval on that 1,000-person request — and the quality of Ghana's roads may depend on how fast the government responds.