Allocation to Road Safety Authority inadequate - Chair of Road and Transport Committee

Chairman of the Roads and Transport Committee in Parliament has advocated for the increment of monies allocated by the government from the road funds to the National Road Safety Authority to boost their enforcement of road safety measures to help curb road carnages.

Speaking on the 3FMSunrise morning show with Alfred Ocansey, the Member of Parliament for Akim Swedru, Kennedy Osei Nyarko said though the authority can now exert some kind of power to punish road offenders, it lacks the adequate financial backing to ensuring that it executes its mandate.

The road fund, according to the chairman of the committee, in last year accrued some 1.8 billion cedis. Out of this, he decried, only 24 million cedis was allocated to the authority.

“The road safety authority, they are in a better position than before to enforce the road regulations or safety laws, they are more than before now, they have the autonomous and mandate to make sure users of our roads observe safety measures.

“I think they are now rec on how they can have enough resources to execute the programmes that they have. That’s what we are fighting, that’s what we are also advocating for them, telling government that they are getting monies from the road fund and that is a peanut because if road safety authority delivers its mandate then we need to give them enough budget.

"As we speak now, they are getting about 24 million Ghana cedis from the funds which is enough,” he said.

On his part, Director of Planning and programmes at the national road safety authority, David Adonteng expressed his gratitude to the chairman of the committee of roads and transport for pushing for the augmentation on the budget allocation for the authority from the fund.

He said, “We are grateful for understanding our frustrations and believe an addition on the allocation to the authority will further help us in our efforts in reducing road carnages.”