MPs Roast Amoako-Atta Over Order To Stop Road Toll Payments

The Minister of Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako-Atta has incurred the wrath of Parliament for issuing an order to stop road toll payments in the country.

Some lawmakers, mainly from the opposition side, said he exercised ultra vires in issuing that order.

Mr Kwasi Amoako-Atta who is also Member of Parliament for Atiwa West, on Wednesday November 17 directed the cessation of collection of tolls on public roads and bridges effective Thursday, November 18 after the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta had announced in the 2022 budget statement the cancellation of the tolls.

A press release issued a few hours after the announcement by the Minister of Finance, said the directive will take effect from 12:00am Thursday.

“Motorists are kindly advised to approach the locations with caution and observe all safety measures that will be put in place,” the press release said.

But during deliberations on the floor of the House on Thursday, Minority leader Haruna Iddrisu questioned the powers that the Minister relied on to issue this directive when the budget had not been approved by Parliament.

Supporting Mr Iddrisu’s submission was the lawmaker for Adaklu, Kwame Agbodza.

Mr Agbodza said “It is quite clear that the Minister sidestepped parliament by pretending that he as a minister, not even the finance minister,  has the right to  waive taxes in this country. My senior colleague the road minister is a lawyer  and a very experienced one. I submit that  this action is not a mere action.

“To make it quite serious, on Tuesday Mr Speaker, your committee on Roads and Transport met  and invited the minister of roads  and transport  to work on a referral which is to build the road between Manfe and  Koforidua. At that meeting I asked  the Ministry  representative where the minister was . The response they gave me was  the Minister was on an official trip  with the president

“The Minister should have known that he has no such powers.

“In any case he was not in the jurisdiction. So Mr Speaker, we want you to direct that the Minister has  no such powers  to waive the payment  of charges  in this country expect Parliament. Mr Speaker direct that the Minister rescind his decision, if he so wishes he should present that to parliament.”

The Speaker said in Parliament on Thursday November 18 that the Minister acted wrongly by issuing that command.

“I think that it is proper for us to direct the minister, a member of this house, in fact a senior member of this house, I think that he might have acted wrongly and therefore I call him to reverse this decision,” he said.

Mr Bagbin added “These are policy  proposals  that the Minister of Finance has presented to the House. Until they are approved nobody has the authority to start implementing something that doesn’t exist.

“Does [the Road Minister’s order] amount to a disrespect  of the House? That is where I may differ.

“The Minister of Roads and Highways, because this is not a court of law,  might have misunderstood or misapplied the law and so it is for us  to draw his attention and tell him that you have no such authority. In spite of all the legal and linguistic gymnastic that have been displayed , it is very clear that what the minister sought to do he had no such authority to do that.

“I want to clearly direct that what the Minister  has released  is complete Brutum Fulmen, it means it is an empty boast , it has no effect  and therefore I call on him  to honourably  withdraw that directive . Failure to do so will be a serious breach of the directive of the speaker and that would amount to contempt of parliament

“I think that it is proper for us to direct the minister, a member of this house, in fact a senior member of this house, I think that he might have acted wrongly and therefore I call on him to reverse this decision,” he ruled.

For his part, Member of Parliament for Abuakwa South, Samuel Atta Akyea defended the Minister saying he did not disrespect Parliament and the laws by issuing that order when the budget had not been approved.

He said “Even in the Supreme Court , with the greatest of respect Mr Speaker, sometimes there is a misreading of the law which does not amount to the fact that the law lords are disrespecting the law.

“So at such a time that we we made that distinction we cannot attribute to the honourable Minister for Roads and Highways he is disrespecting the law.”

He added “Probably , with the greatest of respect, this could be an administrative error which should not  happens.”

Credit: 3News