General News of Friday, 19 November 2021
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
2021-11-19Amoako-Atta's directive an empty boast - Alban Bagbin
Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, announced government’s decision to abolish roll tolls from 2022
Roads and Highways Ministry orders cessation of tolls from Thursday, November 18, 2020.
Speaker directs minister to reverse the directive
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has labelled the Roads and Highways Minister’s directive for
Read full articlethe cessation of tolls as an empty boast.
The Speaker, at a parliamentary sitting on Thursday, November 18, 2021, indicated that for the payment of road tolls to be halted, it must be accompanied by an Act of Parliament since an existing law enforced the payment.
Alban Bagbin thus expressed concern over the minister’s directive to abolish collection of road tolls without recourse to parliamentary approval.
He said that amounted to disrespect to the legislative arm of government.
Consequently, the Speaker directed the Roads and Highways Minister, Kwesi Amoako-Atta, to reverse the directive or face contempt of parliament.
“Until the 2022 budget is approved, all that is contained in it are proposals. We have the authority to approve it and until it has been approved, nobody had the authority to start implementing something that does not exist. It amounts to a disrespect of Parliament," he noted,.
“The Minister [of Roads and Highways] might have misunderstood or misapplied the law, and so it is for us to draw his attention and tell him that he has no such authority. The law we have now has imposed the fees that we have been collecting. And so I want to clearly direct that what the Minister has released is completely brutum fulmen. It means it’s an empty boast. It has no effect,” Alban Bagbin emphasized.
The brouhaha followed an announcement by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, at the presentation of the 2022 budget statement on Wednesday, November 17, 2021, on government’s decision to abolish road toll collection from the beginning of next year once the budget is approved by parliament.
The Roads and Highways Ministry, however, issued a statement directing the cessation of tolls from 12 am on Thursday, November 18, 2021.
