By Issah Olegor
The Attorney General has initiated legal action against businessman Joseph Siaw Agyepong and his company, J.A. Plant Pool Ghana Limited, over an alleged $2 million overpayment linked to the controversial District Road Improvement Programme (DRIP) equipment contract signed under the previous administration.
According to court documents, the dispute centres on a major government contract executed in 2024 for the supply of road construction and maintenance equipment under the nationwide DRIP initiative, which was introduced to strengthen district-level road maintenance capacity across the country.
The DRIP programme became one of the flagship infrastructure interventions of the Akufo-Addo administration ahead of the 2024 general elections, with government distributing heavy-duty road equipment to Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, MMDAs to improve feeder roads and deteriorating inner roads across rural communities.
Under the agreement, government contracted J.A. Plant Pool Ghana Limited to supply various categories of road machinery and equipment at a total contract value of $178,704,739.50.
However, the Attorney General alleges that an arithmetic discrepancy embedded within the contract documentation resulted in an overstatement of the final contract sum by exactly $2 million.
According to the suit, the contract included a detailed schedule listing nine categories of equipment together with their individual unit prices and total costs.
The Attorney General argues that although the final total stated at the bottom of the schedule indicated a grand total of $178,704,739.50, a proper addition of the individual figures actually produces a total of $176,704,739.50.
The state therefore contends that the contract sum reflected in the agreement corresponds to the erroneous total figure rather than the mathematically accurate amount.
Court filings further allege that despite the discrepancy being apparent on the face of the contract documents, government proceeded to fully pay the entire overstated amount to J.A. Plant Pool.
According to the Attorney General, demands were subsequently made for the alleged excess payment of $2 million to be refunded to the state, but the amount has allegedly not been returned.
As a result, the Attorney General is now seeking reliefs from the court compelling Joseph Siaw Agyepong and his company to refund the disputed amount to the Republic of Ghana.
The DRIP initiative involved the nationwide distribution of graders, backhoes, rollers, tipper trucks, water tankers and other earth-moving equipment to local assemblies to help address poor road networks, particularly in deprived and farming communities.
The programme, however, also attracted criticism from sections of the public who questioned the procurement processes, financing arrangements and cost structure surrounding the acquisition of the equipment.
The company in its response said it was a clerical error in arriving at the figures.
More anon on how the DRIP deal was cooked.
