REDUCE BARRIERS ON TEMA-OUAGADOUGOU ROAD (PAGE 21, OCT 6)

Two Non-governmental Organizations are demanding a reduction in the number of road barriers on the Tema-Ouagadougou corridor to boost trade amongst these two countries.
The Social Support Foundation and the Community Development and Advocacy Centre are jointly implementing the Accelerated Economic Development through improved road transport governance project strategically towards enhancing equitable access, accountability and transparency in road transport governance within the West African sub-region.
Speaking at a forum with stakeholders in the transport and haulage industry as well as law enforcement agencies at Paga, the Project Team leader, Mr. Louis Acheampong said the project seeks to free the West African transport corridors from excessive barriers, corruption and delays.
According to him, studies carried out has shown that on the main Tema-Paga corridor, there 1.9 check points per every 100 km translating into 19 minutes of time delay for the same distance adding that US $ 4.98 of bribe are paid for 100 km to agents at the check points.
Mr. Acheampong said a closer analysis of the report revealed that national economies in the West African sub-region loses over US $ 1.5 million in a year because this money goes into the pockets of officials at the check points as unofficial monies collected from cargo drivers irrespective of whether these drivers have the required documentations on their vehicles and cargoes.
“Undoubtedly, the various countries lose high revenue and their respective citizens are at the receiving end in terms of high cost of goods and services paid as final consumers”, he said.
He noted that though corrupt practices are still a big problem on the West African sub-region despite the overall bribery decrease of 11 per cent and that of Ghana by 5 per cent in 2009 with respect to 2008 recorded figures, the situation is still alarming since some new opportunities for bribery has elevated through the introduction of new check points and new extortion avenues under the pretext of enforcing the rules of axle-weight load limits.
Mr. Acheampong therefore appealed to all stakeholders especially the authorities of the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies and the security and law enforcement officers at the barriers and check points ad the driver unions and the Shippers Council for their unflinching support and collaboration to free the corridors of the sun-region of the evils that are prevalent and endemic on the roads.
The Upper East Regional Crime Officer of the Ghana Police Service, Superintendent Edward Tabiri made a strong case for the police presence on the road. He argued that by their traditional function, the police are enjoined to be on the road at a particular location and or at a particular point in time whenever circumstances demand.
He mentioned child trafficking, and prostitution, small arms and ammunition trafficking, armed robbery, illicit drug trafficking, counterfeiting, piracy, carjacking and road traffic offences as justification for police presence on the road.
“It is very difficult to tell which barriers are not necessary given our underdeveloped police service. In well endowed societies, it takes one-man police officer to serve as the MTTU cum response officer. We just do not have the resources hence the need to put more men on the road to check crime and road offences,” Mr. Tabiri said.
He added that to curb the delays and corruption, scan machines ought to be put at certain points along the Tema-Ouagadougou corridor, stressing that the threat to offload a whole container load of wares always invariably coerces the transporter to yield to unnecessary demands for bribes.
“Drivers must not drive only road worthy vehicles but also insist on their rights not to give out bribes” he added.