Features
Making road tolls more productive and cost-effective in Ghana
All over the world, road tolls are collected to provide a sustainable source of revenue for on-going road maintenance and improvement. Tolling is an innovative and cost-effective approach to addressing national transportation infrastructure challenges while providing a safe and reliable option for the travelling public to reach their destination.
Countries such as Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Switzerland among others, have widely adopted road tolling through various means. Even in the United States of America (USA), more than 4,000 kilometres of the interstate highway system are tolled.
IMPORTANCE AND RELEVANCE OF TOLL BOOTHS
This, therefore, shows how relevant and important road tolls play in the development of a nation because in some jurisdiction, road tolls allow new roads to be built and maintained without raising taxes on the general public.
The amount of tolls, usually varies by vehicle type, weight or number of axles, with freight trucks often charged higher rates than saloon cars. In most advanced countries, some collection points are automated and the user deposits money in a machine which opens the gate once the correct toll has been paid. In order to cut cost and minimise time delay, many tolls are collected with electronic collection equipment which automatically communicates with a toll payer’s transponder or uses automatic number plate recognition to charge drivers by debiting their accounts.
EXEMPTIONS FROM PAYMENT OF TOLLS
Over here in Ghana, the Road Fund Act, Act 536, exempts vehicles bearing official identification marks of institutions such as the Armed Forces, Police, Fire Service, Prisons, Diplomatic Missions on reciprocal basis, government and mission hospitals and the Ghana Red Cross Society, from paying road tolls.
It is estimated that Ghana has about 35 toll booths nationwide and collects approximately GH¢1million daily. These toll booths are mandated to collect tolls from vehicles including motorbikes with the exception of the security services and other exempted vehicles. Four of these toll booths namely, Accra Plaza, Tema Plaza, NgleshieAmanfro and Amasaman have been automated as of 2019. Charges by these toll booths range from saloon to other heavy duty vehicles but that of saloon car attracts a fee of 50 pesewas.
CONTROVERSY OVER THE PAYMENT OF ROAD TOLLS
In recent times, payments of these road tolls in the country, have been characterised with misunderstandings by motorists, especially commercial road transport operators who are crying foul about the manner in which money accrued from these tolls is disbursed by the government and also its intention to increase the current rate.
According to the drivers, years of the collection of road tolls in the country had not reflected in the routine maintenance of roads. They claim that today, there are more potholes on the roads than before and have become deathtraps. The question they are now asking is, “What has the government been using the road tolls for?”
To them, The Road Fund from all intent and purposes, was set up to receive money generated from the road tolls for the routine maintenance of our roads. But government, instead of using the money, rather mortgaged the Road Fund and raised money for other things in the road sector instead of maintaining the roads.
PAYMENT OF NEW ROAD TOLLS
The drivers have picked up information that Parliament has already approved the new road tolls and they have, therefore, registered their strong protest that they were not consulted for their input on the computation of the new tolls and that is not fair to them.
The drivers were of the view that if the sector minister, Mr. Kwasi Amoako-Atta had consistently made it clear that there were leakages in the collection of the road tolls, then increasing of road tolls was not a prudent measure to seal the leakages. The best option is for the minister to devise scientific or digital ways of blocking the leakages in order to maximise the money generated from the tolls.
“We have also picked up intelligence that there are plans to add the tolls to the prices of fuel at the pumps in order to do away with the toll booths. This also, we vehemently reject it. The commercial road transport operation is already reeling under serious high fuel price increases coupled with daily increases in spare parts. As a result, any additional tax or increase in road toll will collapse our businesses,” they stated.
ARGUMENT BY COMMERCIAL DRIVERS
Indeed, the argument being put forward by these commercial drivers is genuine and meritorious and, therefore, must be given serious attention by the government. How can you increase road tolls when you have alluded to loophole regarding the collection process? You need to plug these loopholes first to ensure that money due the Road Fund is collected before embarking on any further decision to amend the current rate.
We are told that out of 35 toll booths nationwide, only four have been automated since 2019. That is preposterous and unacceptable in a country such as Ghana. We need to find out why it is difficult to automate the rest of the toll booths. These manual processes of handling these toll booths have resulted in huge sums of money going down the drain daily. Besides, human cannot be well trusted and, therefore, personal handling of money from these toll booths can encourage corruption since there will be lack of transparency and accountability. We need to take a second look at road tolling mechanism in our country because it is another surest way of generating enough revenue to improve and maintain our road infrastructure to safeguard lives and property.
ELECTRONIC TOLL BOOTHS
Considering various electronic toll booths system that have been deployed in many parts of the world and the innumerable advantages they bring to such countries, it is safe to say that this project will address the challenges faced in developing countries in relation to toll collection. This electronic means of toll collection will also ease congestion at various toll booths where vehicles have to queue for manual payment before they can be allowed to cross the barrier.
It is regretful to state that ministers and government officials in charge of roads and transport, make frequent trips abroad where we have some of these automated toll booths, yet when they return from these travels, they do little to influence governments to streamline the processes to bring them in line with what they have seen abroad.
ADDING TOLL BOOTH CHARGES TO FUEL PRICES AT THE PUMPS
It is also amazing to hear that the government intends to add the tolls to the prices of fuel at the pumps in order to do away with the toll booths. That is dangerous and suicidal to say the least because not all road users patronise these toll booths and, therefore, some will be paying for services they have not used. Besides, this will encourage increases in transport fares unjustifiably. It is important and necessary for parliament to tread cautiously on the decision they make on this issue, otherwise, it will create chaos within the transport sector and affect the country in general.
Indeed, we need to make the collection of road tolls more productive and cost-effective to the best interest of our country because it is a force to reckon with to solve the numerous problems relating to the transportation sector.
By Charles Neequaye
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Features
Tears of Ghanaman, home and abroad
The typical native of Sikaman is by nature a hospitable creature, a social animal with a big heart, a soul full of the milk of earthly goodness, and a spirit too loving for its own comfort.
Ghanaman hosts a foreign pal and he spends a fortune to make him very happy and comfortable-good food, clean booze, excellent accommodation and a woman for the night.
Sometimes the pal leaves without saying a “thank you but Ghanaman is not offended. He’d host another idiot even more splendidly. His nature is warm, his spirit benevolent. That is the typical Ghanaian and no wonder that many African-Americans say, “If you haven’t visited Ghana. Then you’ve not come to Africa.
You can even enter the country without a passport and a visa and you’ll be welcomed with a pot of palm wine.
If Ghanaman wants to go abroad, especially to an European country or the United States, it is often after an ordeal.
He has to doze in a queue at dawn at the embassy for days and if he is lucky to get through to being interviewed, he is confronted by someone who claims he or she has the power of discerning truth from lie.
In short Ghanaman must undergo a lie-detector test and has to answer questions that are either nonsensical or have no relevance to the trip at hand. When Joseph Kwame Korkorti wanted a visa to an European country, the attache studied Korkorti’s nose for a while and pronounced judgment.
“The way I see you, you won’t return to Ghana if I allow you to go. Korkorti nearly dislocated her jaw; Kwasiasem akwaakwa. In any case what had Korkorti’s nose got to do with the trip?
If Ghanaman, after several attempts, manages to get the visa and lands in the whiteman’s land, he is seen as another monkey uptown, a new arrival of a degenerate ape coming to invade civilized society. He is sneered at, mocked at and avoided like a plague. Some landlords abroad will not hire their rooms to blacks because they feel their presence in itself is bad business.
When a Sikaman publisher landed overseas and was riding in a public bus, an urchin who had the impudence and notoriety of a dead cockroach told his colleagues he was sure the black man had a tail which he was hiding in his pair of trousers. He didn’t end there. He said he was in fact going to pull out the tail for everyone to see.
True to his word he went and put his hand into the backside of the bewildered publisher, intent on grabbing his imaginary tail and pulling it out. It took a lot of patience on the part of the publisher to avert murder. He practically pinned the white miscreant on the floor by the neck and only let go when others intervene. Next time too…
The way we treat our foreign guests in comparison with the way they treat us is polar contrasting-two disparate extremes, one totally incomparable to the other. They hound us for immigration papers, deport us for overstaying and skinheads either target homes to perpetrate mayhem or attack black immigrants to gratify their racial madness
When these same people come here we accept them even more hospitably than our own kin. They enter without visas, overstay, impregnate our women and run away.
About half of foreigners in this country do not have valid resident permits and was not a bother until recently when fire was put under the buttocks of the Immigration Service
In fact, until recently I never knew Sikaman had an Immigration Service. The problem is that although their staff look resplendent in their green outfit, you never really see them anywhere. You’d think they are hidden from the public eye.
The first time I saw a group of them walking somewhere, I nearly mistook them for some sixth-form going to the library. Their ladies are pretty though.
So after all, Sikaman has an Immigration Service which I hear is now alert 24 hours a day tracking down illegal aliens and making sure they bound the exit via Kotoka International. A pat on their shoulder.
I am glad the Interior Ministry has also realised that the country has been too slack about who goes out or comes into Sikaman.
Now the Ministry has warned foreigners not to take the country’s commitment to its obligations under the various conditions as a sign of weakness or a source for the abuse of her hospitality.
“Ghana will not tolerate any such abuse,” Nii Okaija Adamafio, the Interior Minister said, baring his teeth and twitching his little moustache. He was inaugurating the Ghana Refugee and Immigration Service Boards.
He said some foreigners come in as tourists, investors, consultants, skilled workers or refugees. Others come as ‘charlatans, adventurers or plain criminals. “
Yes, there are many criminals among them. Our courts have tried a good number of them for fraud and misconduct.
It is time we welcome only those who would come and invest or tour and go back peacefully and not those whose criminal intentions are well-hidden but get exposed in due course of time.
This article was first published on Saturday March 14, 1998
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Features
Decisions have consequences
In this world, it is always important to recognise that every action or decision taken, has consequences.
It can result in something good or bad, depending on the quality of the decision, that is, the factors that were taken into account in the decision making.
The problem with a bad decision is that, in some instances, there is no opportunity to correct the result even though you have regretted the decision, which resulted in the unpleasant outcome.
This is what a friend of mine refers to as having regretted an unregretable regret. After church last Sunday, I was watching a programme on TV and a young lady was sharing with the host, how a bad decision she took, had affected her life immensely and adversely.
She narrated how she met a Caucasian and she got married to him. The white man arranged for her to join him after the marriage and processes were initiated for her to join her husband in UK. It took a while for the requisite documentation to be procured and during this period, she took a decision that has haunted her till date.
According to her narration, she met a man, a Ghanaian, who she started dating, even though she was a married woman.
After a while her documents were ready and so she left to join her husband abroad without breaking off the unholy relationship with the man from Ghana.
After she got to UK, this man from Ghana, kept pressuring her to leave the white man and return to him in Ghana. The white man at some point became a bit suspicious and asked about who she has been talking on the phone with for long spells, and she lied to him that it was her cousin.
Then comes the shocker. After the man from Ghana had sweet talked her continuously for a while, she decided to leave her husband and return to Ghana after only three weeks abroad.
She said, she asked the guy to swear to her that he would take care of both her and her mother and the guy swore to take good care of her and her mother as well as rent a 3-bedroom flat for her. She then took the decision to leave her husband and return to Ghana.
She told her mum that she was returning to Ghana to marry the guy in Ghana. According to her, her mother vigorously disagreed with her decision and wept.
She further added that her mum told her brother and they told her that they were going to tell her husband about her intentions.
According to her, she threatened that if they called her husband to inform him, then she would commit suicide, an idea given to her by the boyfriend in Ghana.
Her mum and brother afraid of what she might do, agreed not to tell her husband. She then told her husband that she was returning to Ghana to attend her Grandmother’s funeral.
The husband could not understand why she wanted to go back to Ghana after only three weeks stay so she had to lie that in their tradition, grandchildren are required to be present when the grandmother dies and is to be buried.
She returned to Ghana; the flat turns into a chamber and hall accommodation, the promise to take care of her mother does not materialise and generally she ends up furnishing the accommodation herself. All the promises given her by her boyfriend, turned out to be just mere words.
A phone the husband gave her, she left behind in UK out of guilty conscience knowing she was never coming back to UK.
Through that phone and social media, the husband found out about his boyfriend and that was the end of her marriage.
Meanwhile, things have gone awry here in Ghana and she had regretted and at a point in her narration, was trying desperately to hold back tears. Decisions indeed have consequences.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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