Roads and Highways Ministry directed the cessation of road tolls collection after 2022 budget presentation
Inusah Fuseini believes the act of the sector minister is blunder
Former Member of Parliament for the Tamale Central Constituency, Honourable Inusah Fuseini, has criticized the Roads and Highways Minster’s directive for cessation of road tolls collection.
According to him, the Minister Kwesi Amoako-Atta went overboard in issuing such a directive without recourse to parliamentary approval.
He contended that the act of the Minister is blunder.
“A declaration of an intention to scrap road tolls does not mature into an amendment of the Road Tolls Act, neither does it operate to amend the Fees and Charges Act that has been passed by the Parliament of Ghana. They are part of the existing laws of this country.
“So it came to me as a surprise and shock that the Minister [of Roads] will commit this blunder. The Minister has no power to arrogate to himself the right or authority to amend the law without going to Parliament,” he emphasized.
The former legislator suggested that the Minister should have introduced an amendment to the Road Tolls Act in Parliament before issuing the directive.
The Roads and Highways Ministry directed the immediate halting of collection of road tolls after the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, in the 2022 budget announced that the government intends to abolish road tolls next year once the budget is approved.
The directive from the minister has since received stiff opposition from the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, who argues that parliament has not approved the budget thus components within it cannot be implemented.
He has consequently directed the Minister to reverse the directive or face contempt of parliament.
However, the ministry in a subsequent statement dated 18th November, 2021, has clarified that “the action taken was to suspend the operationalization of the collection of the tolls and not to suspend the law”.
Former MP for Tamale Central, Honourable Inusah Fuseini