Road Tolls cessation: Minority to haul Roads Minister to Parliament
On Wednesday, November 17, the Roads Minister issued a directive announcing the cessation of the road tolls effective midnight of Thursday, November 18 per the 2022 budget.
The Minority in Parliament is to haul the Roads and Highways Minister, Kwasi Amoako-Atta to Parliament over his Wednesday directive on the cessation of the roll tolls collection.
In an interview with JoyFM, Dr. Dominic Ayine, MP for Bolgatanga East, noted that the Minister’s directive is in breach of the Constitution.
“The Basic principle of Law is that Parliament does not sit in vain. In other words, when Parliament enacts a policy into law, that law is binding on every person by way of obligation to conduct the affairs of the state in a certain manner.”
For instance, in the case of the Road Tolls Act, the Minister of Roads is supposed to impose road tolls by Regulation on the population of road users. That is a statutory obligation that can not be weighed or repealed by the directive of the Minister. So what the Minister has done, is grossly unconstitutional and illegal because, until such a time that Parliament passes the appropriation Act, and in the Appropriation Act repeals the road Act or portion of it on the tolling of roads, the Minister has no right whatsoever or to suspend the operation of such Act,” he noted.
On Wednesday, November 17, the Roads Minister issued a directive announcing the cessation of the road tolls effective midnight of Thursday, November 18 per the 2022 budget.
In his presentation of the 2022 budget Statement, the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta noted that; “Government will zero-rate tolls on all public roads and bridges. This takes effect immediately after the Budget is approved. The tolling points will be removed and the toll collection personnel reassigned,” the budget reads in part.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ayine has served notice of the Minority’s decision that the Minister will likely be censured if his reasons for the directive are unacceptable to the house.
“He has contravened an Act of Parliament and it should be possible for us to summon him to give reasons why he has done so and if the reasons are not acceptable, then we can censure him as a house,” he indicated.
