<<Print>>

Deputy Minister of Transport, Mrs Joyce A. B. Mogtari, has urged public institutions to avoid being defensive and using inadequate funding as an excuse for non- performance. She noted that funding would always be an issue and that the institutions would have to think outside �the box� to reach creative approaches of solving problems, while applying the limited funds at their disposals. Besides, they need to subject their programmes and activities to �peer review and public scrutiny, since that is a way to identify shortfalls and proffer solutions to them. Mrs Mogtari was opening a mid-year review conference of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) in Kumasi. �Scaling up towards the attainment of the 2011 to 2013 action plans, no excuse� was the theme. The Deputy Minister underlined the government�s commitment to road safety improvement, considering this as a developmental issue that has direct correlation with economic growth and poverty reduction. They would therefore continue to take steps to raise funding levels to the Commission to enable it to deliver on the core mandate of making the roads safe. She said the government again concedes that the NRSC requires a reviewed mandate so that it would become more responsive to the complex road safety issues that have emerged since its establishment, 14 years ago. The Deputy Minister invited all stakeholders to work together to ensure the successful implementation of the recently promulgated Road Traffic Regulations, which has provisions on spot fines, compulsory and continues driver training, speed limiters for vehicles and registration of transport operators among others. Mrs May Obriri-Yeboah, Executive Director of the Commission, said the meeting was an opportunity to ask hard questions on performance, to identify gaps and re-strategize for the next half of the year. She said although the first quarter road traffic data showed some reductions in the number of total cases and fatalities reported compared with that of year 2012, there was an increase in the number of both vehicles and serious cases. Mr Eric Opoku, Ashanti Regional Minister, identified road crashes as a major challenge and said any initiative aimed at reducing the incidence and impact therefore deserved the support and contribution of all Ghanaians. He said although some progress had been made over the last years, there is the need to hike up efforts to significantly bring down fatalities on the roads.