The government has recently come under a chorus of bashful sentiments with the announcement of a towing fee for damaged cars or vehicles that for some reason are stuck on our roads and need to be removed.
Effective July 1, 2017, government proposed that vehicle owners and motorcyclists will pay compulsory annual fees, tied to the acquisition of road worthy certificate, to cater for towing services.
The public’s response was not that of worthy reception but of antagonism towards the amount to be paid that most vehicle owners thought was absolutely ludicrous.
I believe except for some very loud outright rejections of the initiative that seem to be from people against the incumbent government, any rational pair of eyes would come to one conclusion; that the towing program was innately flawed.
Towing of cars in the country is by convention, the duty of the Ghana Police Service. It is their responsibility Ghanaians don’t get stuck in traffic as a result of a spoilt truck that is restraining vehicle movement. However, as seen to be a strength of the police, they have always been incapacitated by the lack of infrastructure and funds.
For this, government had to intervene by contracting a private company to take charge of towing in the country.
Now, on the issue of relevance, no sane man would argue that a national canker that the towing problem should be resolved. Yet, the road to salvaging the problem leaves much to be accounted for.
That Road Safety Management Services Limited (RSMSL), the company contracted by government is owned by the very people who founded Zoomlion Company Limited which in the past has been entangled in corruption scandals, is completely wrong.
Government has made no mention of any other companies that towing companies that were given a chance to bid. Considering that Ghanaians have to pay a lot for these services, it is only reasonable that a chance be given for similar companies with the infrastructure to bid and hopefully get a lower charge for its citizens. That should a priority of any good government.
Moreover, the fee payment was supposed to be made only about 14 days after it has been publicized. It is interesting to note that for such initiative although approved by parliament should have some form of public acceptance. In spite of this requirement, the National Road Safety Commission found it convenient to just give a two-week notice to public, as if they didn’t care about what the populace had to say.
The pre-service payment under the policy although highly contested makes some sense. Like all insurance policies, a forward payment is made for an anticipatory danger. This not does cloud the fact that utmost good faith has been lost in government especially in exclusive contracts of this sought. Continually, crops of scandals have led the citizens to believe that any such policy is a cover-up some groups of individuals to steal from government.
Furthermore, it is not enough that a random amount be quoted for vehicle owners to pay. The varying differences between heavy trucks, commercial vehicles and heavy duty trucks per their tonnage is not by any known metric.
Ghanaians are still in the dark with issues regarding dispatchment of the vehicles to facilitate the service. Project coordinators themselves have refused to see beyond the flashiness of a new initiative ignoring the fact that our deplorable roads is what really needs fixing. They have refused to notice the frequency at which cars breakdown on specific roads while these dynamics if not critically examined would protract the already existing canker.
Ghanaians surely would need a national towing service but definitely not this one.