The Minister for Roads and Highways, Kwame Governs Agbodza, has announced that the government will soon introduce a new technology to eliminate extortion and corruption at axle load stations as part of efforts to protect Ghana’s road infrastructure.
According to the Minister, the technology will reduce human interference in axle load operations, making it impossible for officials to engage in corrupt practices while ensuring strict enforcement of vehicle weight regulations.
Speaking during the second day of his inspection of infrastructure projects under the government’s Big Push program in the Volta Region, Hon. Agbodza said the decision was informed by the level of corruption associated with axle load stations rather than the salaries paid to officers.
He disclosed that he recently came across a senior high school headmaster who was willing to resign and take up an axle load officer position despite the lower salary.
“I saw somebody who wanted to resign from being a headmaster to become an axle load officer. The salary was about GH¢3,000, but the salary of an average senior high school headmaster is definitely higher than that. The motivation could not have been the salary. The temptation is in what is happening at the axle load stations, and we want to remove that temptation completely.”
Hon. Agbodza disclosed that President John Dramani Mahama has made it clear that the government will not continue investing billions of cedis in road infrastructure while allowing corruption and overloading to destroy the roads.
“The President made a categorical statement that we will not invest billions to build roads and allow this situation to continue. We will soon make people at axle load stations useless with a new technology to curb extortion and corruption and protect our roads. The technology will make it unattractive for anybody to think they can stand there and do what they are doing currently.”
The Roads Minister said the initiative forms part of government’s broader strategy to improve accountability, strengthen axle load enforcement and preserve the country’s road network from the damaging effects of overloaded vehicles.
Source: Newspyramid.com
