A road safety expert, Joseph Boakye Yiadom has cast doubt over the prospect of the Motor Transport and Traffic Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service to smoothly implement the spot-fine.
The MTTU says it has put in place adequate measures to ensure a smooth implementation of the regime, and has announced it will roll out the plan from next month.
As part of the implementation plan, the Unit is collaborating with the National Identification Authority, the DVLA and other organisations to help compile an electronic database of all road users.
The head of Training and Research at the MTTU, DSP Alexander Obeng believes the introduction of the spot-fine would help reduce corruption among officers because they would receive incentives for issuing the spot-fines.
But Joseph Boakye Yiadom has told Joy News the country is “not fully prepared” to implement the system.
He said the system is good and would serve as a deterrent to recalcitrant drivers, but remarked that doing the right thing at the wrong time makes the whole exercise wrong.
According to him, the MTTU would have to start from the scratch, get “proper equipment and proper collaboration” with other agencies and institutions.
There would also be the need for proper identification of drivers and a very effective address system in place, he said.
He noted the absence of the above is the main reason why police officers ensure that drivers are arrested and sent to the police station at all cost because once the offenders are let go it becomes impossible to find them.
Mr Boakye Yiadom was also not convinced that the implementation of the spot-fine would reduce corruption in the police. “The opposite is rather going to be the case,” if proper mechanisms are not put in place, he said adding that it is going to serve as the basis for bargaining with drivers when the officers are not sufficiently incentivized.
Story by Ghana | myjoyonline.com | Isaac Essel