Withdraw directive on road toll cessation-Speaker to Roads Minister

The Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin has directed the Roads and Highways Minister, Kwasi Amoako-Atta to withdraw his directive on the cessation of the payment of road tolls.

According to the Speaker, the Roads Minister is not legally mandated to give such a directive or proposal without it being passed and sanctioned by Parliament.

During Parliamentary proceeding on Thursday, November 18, the Speaker of Parliament further noted that the Minister’s action amounts to a disrespect of Parliament noting that the budget presented on Thursday is a proposal to be approved thus until such is done by the house, the Minister has no such authority.

“It is a proposal they are presenting to us to approve to take effect January 2022. And so until this budget is approved, all that is contained in the budget are proposals. We have the authority to approve,” he noted.

“They have been given the authority pursuant to Article 179 to prepare and lay before the House. So those are policy proposals that the Minister has presented to the House. Until they are approved, nobody has the authority to start implementing something that doesn’t exist. That amounts to a disrespect of the House,” he added.

Also, the Speaker indicated that the Executive organ which the Minister is a part, cannot on their own suspend the implementation of the law thus called on the Minister to withdraw the directive.

“The Executive on their own cannot suspend the implementation of that law. That is not democracy. I want to direct that what the Minister (of Roads) has released has no effect. I call him to withdraw that directive,” he indicated.

The order by the Speaker of Parliament followed an issue raised by the Minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu on the floor of Parliament relative to the undermining of Parliament’s authority per the said directive by the Minister.

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.

The Minority in Parliament on Thursday threatened to haul the Roads Minister to Parliament for his directive on cessation of the roads tolls.

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.

Moreover,  Mr. Ayine 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.

Also in Parliament today, the Speaker stated that “the Minister (of Roads) might have misunderstood or misapplied the law and so it is for us to draw his attention and tell him that you have no such authority. It is very clear what the Minister tried to do, he has no authority. There is no such law for you to operationalize. The law we have now has imposed a figure they have been collecting.”