As part of his advocacy for Ghana to build a high-trust society, CDD Ghana Fellow Hene Aku Kwapong is making a forceful case for an overhaul of how the state awards and manages public contracts.
The former Senior Vice President (SVP) and Treasurer of the New York Economic Development Corporation argues that Ghana cannot build a high-trust society when the very system through which government spends public money is opaque and vulnerable to abuse.
As he states in a metaphor, trust is the lubricant of a functioning society, and therefore, the gearbox where that trust should be protected is instead grinding.
In a write-up cited by The High Street Journal, Hene Aku Kwapong made a strong case for the need for Ghana build a transparent and open contracting system to win the trust of the citizens.
“At its core, my argument is simple. Procurement is where the public purse meets private actors. If the interface is hidden from public scrutiny, then suspicion becomes rational and corruption becomes profitable. This is not theoretical. It is documented in study after study and scandal after scandal,” he emphasized.
Opaque Procurement Fuels Suspicion, Waste, and Abandoned Projects
In his analysis, the board member of Ecobank points to the country’s daily experiences of stalled infrastructure, inflated costs, and deals shrouded in secrecy. He notes that these are not random mishaps; they are symptoms of a procurement system hidden from the public eye.
When citizens cannot see who is awarded contracts, for how much, and on what terms, suspicion becomes rational. Corruption becomes profitable, and waste becomes normal.
To further justify his point, he cited that studies in Ghana’s construction and infrastructure sector show that corruption inflates contract costs by up to 30 percent. The Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition estimates nearly three billion dollars are lost each year through procurement-related leakage. For him, with public procurement representing up to 18 percent of Ghana’s GDP, this is not a trivial issue that must not be taken lightly.
Numerous Scandals Underscoring the Human and Financial Cost of Secrecy
To further bring the argument home, he mentioned recent examples of public contract scandals that reinforce his stance on the need for transparency.
First, he named the SML–GRA revenue assurance contract, which ran into hundreds of millions of dollars, awarded without competition and without a proven track record. He emphasized that claims of billions saved fell apart under scrutiny.
In another case, the CDD Ghana Fellow further cited the Ministry of Education’s free Wi-Fi project ballooned from an initial commitment of about 84 million cedis to more than 430 million cedis actually paid. He notes that nearly all surveyed schools reported poor or no service. Sole sourcing anchored the problem, while opacity allowed it to continue.
Defence Procurement: A Warning Zone of Extreme Vulnerability
Another crucial argument he raises is how the defence sector, is a vivid example of how secrecy breeds risk. Transparency International’s Defence Integrity Index scores Ghana 20 out of 100 on procurement transparency, classifying the environment as highly vulnerable to manipulation and political interference.
Sadly, he laments over how basic contractual information, such as contractor names, contract amounts, and ownership of suppliers, is often unavailable.
He explains that when people cannot see what is being bought with their taxes, trust evaporates, and rumour becomes a substitute for facts.
Radical Transparency Is the First Step to Rebuilding Trust
The CDD-Ghana Fellow believes that the solution to this menace of opacity in public contracting is simple, clear, and direct. The first step forward is publishing all contracts and the contractors who win them. He adds that the state must also strive to make contracting fully visible, from bidding to award to execution.
By putting everything in the open, he argues, the state protects itself and restores confidence.
Transparency deters inflated pricing, exposes conflicts of interest, and signals that public institutions respect the citizens who fund them. He says it is not just an administrative reform, it is a moral and civic obligation.
“When citizens cannot see what their money is buying, trust evaporates and the rumour economy takes over. The system is not flawed at the margins. The system is flawed at the core. And the fix must therefore be structural, not cosmetic,” he noted.
The Bottomline
Hene Aku Kwapong maintains that striving for transparency in public contracting is a practical step toward a society where citizens believe that the state acts in their interest.
Ghana, he says, cannot afford a system where billions leak through shadows and projects are abandoned while communities wait.
“You cannot build a high-trust society when the primary mechanism through which the state spends money is itself opaque, discretionary, and structurally vulnerable to abuse,” he insists.
