January 13, 2022
By: Dadson A. Musa
The national Public Relations Officer, Ahmed Feika of the Sierra Leone Roads Safety Authority in Freetown has intimated this medium that they are playing a very important role to augment government revenue.
This happens through licenses and fines as the money goes directly into government accounts in selected banks across the country.
Every year they are given target by government which they always work hard towards meeting.
Their job is to partner with police especially the traffic division so that safety is ensured on our roads. So there is no overlap of functions as theirs is a narrow mandate while that of the police is broad and covers wider area.
Asked about personnel not being enough to handle traffic issues, PRO replied that they have safety corps across the country in all sixteen districts just to ensure motorists comply with traffic rules.
During the festive seasons especially Christmas and New Year traffic offenses tend to be common place in this country so wardens are always on duty and put on high alert.
On vehicle, motor bike and other licenses he said that it is only done in Freetown.
Asked why this is the case he cited security reasons so that criminals don’t beat the system.
But this is a process that causes delay for people in rural areas in the country as they will have to wait for weeks before getting their number plates and stickers.
On whether the payment system is not prone to corruption he advised motorists to go through the right channel so that there is no delay or their monies are not placed in wrong hands.
It is no secret that some road safety corps are offered bribes just so that they let some offenders off the hook.
But the promotion of road safety issues seems to be working well in this country no matter what.