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Lecturer condemns abolishing of road tolls
Dr Kennedy A. Alatinga, a Senior lecturer and Dean of the Faculty of Planning and Land Management of the SD Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies has described as bad and ill- planned to abolish road tolls.
He also condemned the decision to tax mobile money transaction (Momo) above GH¢100.00 and other electronic banking.
Dr Alatinga said, in Wa after the 2022 budget presentation to Parliament, that unemployment was also likely to rise if the road tolls were abolished.
He explained that the road toll was instituted to generate help as part of revenue generation source to support the Road Fund, which was setup in 1985 to secure sources of funding for the preservation of the roads.
He said some provisions in the Road Fund Act, 1997 (Act 536) mandated the Road Fund board to ensure that the nation’s trunk, feeder and urban roads were regularly maintained and that generated revenue at the toll booths was mandatory.
Dr Alatinga said it was necessary to properly and transparently manage the road toll booths to generate more money for development.
“Already, we are grappling with poor road network and we know the havoc long vehicles from neighbouring countries are destroying our roads. So how do we allow all of them to run on our roads for free”, he said.
He claimed that there was excessive hardship in the country and that any policy that will let some people lose their jobs was a bad policy, which must have a second look to sustain jobs.
“Using traffic congestion as some of the reasons for abolishing the road tolls is not a good example because there are parts of the country where traffic congestion is heavier than even around toll booths.
There is no toll booth at Suame in Kumasi, but due to poor road network, there is always traffic congestion there”, he said.
On the tax on mobile and other electronic banking, Dr Alatinga said the situation will prevent people from transacting business electronically, especially as the country was talking about cashless economy. -GNA
The Member of Parliament for Nsawam Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh Dompreh, has expressed concern over delays in the release of the District Assemblies Common Fund, warning that the situation is stalling development across the country.
On his facebook page, he described as a matter of urgent national importance, the Minority Chief Whip pointed to what he sees as a growing crisis of unpaid contractors, abandoned projects, and halted infrastructure works in many districts.
He noted that several communities are grappling with half completed schools, unfinished health facilities, abandoned markets, deteriorating roads, and stalled sanitation projects.
According to him, many contractors who have executed projects for district assemblies have not been paid, forcing some construction firms to demobilise from sites while workers lose their jobs.
He stressed that the District Assemblies Common Fund is not a discretionary allocation but a constitutional requirement under Article 252 of the 1992 Constitution, intended to support development at the local level.
In his view, years of delayed releases and accumulated arrears have weakened district development financing and disrupted projects meant to improve living conditions in communities.
He further argued that some payments made in recent years were largely the settlement of old debts rather than funding for new or ongoing projects, a situation he believes has affected contractor confidence and local economic activity.
He described the issue as more than a budgetary challenge, characterising it as a development emergency and a governance concern.
He therefore urged the appropriate authorities to pay outstanding DACF arrears, settle contractors who have completed their work, and ensure that transfers to districts are automatic and predictable.
He maintained that decentralisation can only succeed when district assemblies receive adequate and timely funding to carry out development projects.
He emphasised that stalled projects directly affect ordinary citizens, since they rely on such infrastructure for education, healthcare, transportation, sanitation, and economic activities.
He called for renewed attention to grassroots development, insisting that national progress should not be concentrated only in major cities but extended to all communities.
By: Jacob Aggrey
Richard Appiah, the footballer who killed two children and stored part of their bodies in a fridge at Abesim in the Bono Region in 2021 has been handed a lifetime sentence.
This was after a five member panel of judges at the Accra High Court returned a verdict of guilty against the convict.
Appiah, 32, also a draughtsman would spend the rest of his life in prison after he was convicted of murder.
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BY MALIK SULLEMANA
