Gov’t to construct automatic tollgates to curb embezzlement

The Government has resolved to replace the current tollgates on national roads with automatic tollgates in a bid to curb corruption and theembezzlement of funds from the road tax.

The gross act of corruption at tollgates for years is exhibited through the sale of parallel and recycled tickets.

It has been disclosed in a document prepared by the Ministry of Public Works thatfeasibility study for the construction of the automatic tollgates in the country has already been carried out, and the next phase of the project is to construct infrastructures that will host the tollgates on both sides of the roads.

According to the document, the automatic tollgates will not be constructedat go.The first set of the tollgates will be constructed in Mbankomo, Boumnyebel, Edea, and Tiko on the Yaounde-Douala-Limbe Road, Nkometou, Bafia, Bayangam and Santa on the Yaounde-Bafoussam-Bamenda Road and Mbanga, Manjo, Bandja on the Douala-Nkongsamba-Bafoussam Road.

In a nutshell, 11 automatic tollgates will be constructed during the pilot phase of the project.

Talking about the heavy embezzlement that has been going on at the tollgates, it would be recalled that The Post reported on July 20, 2015, that the control mission of the Supreme State Audit, “revealed that FCFA 5 billion collected from the various tollgates in the country was embezzled between 2007 and 2011”.

TheStateAuditors who in their findings identified the Chiefs of tollgates as the main operators of the rackets, also found out that theembezzlement were mainly through the sale of parallel and recycled tickets.

Talking about racketeering network as regard the sale of parallel tickets, it was reported for example that in 2011, the Programme for the Safety of Road Revenue, better known by its French acronym, PSRR, made a request for the printing of 13,687,000 tickets, but that the National Printing Press supplied 14,885,000 tickets, giving a surplus of 1,189,0000 tickets.

As for recycled tickets, the control mission of the Supreme State Audit in 2011 seized tickets of 2009 from the Gazawa Tollgate.

Meanwhile, observers hold that beside the sale of parallel and recycled tickets at tollgates, other common malpractices that have been robbing the State of revenue from the road tax are complicitiesbetween MINFI personnelwho sell tickets and drivers of public transport vehicles.

These public transport driversare those who ply certain axis of the national road and have become friends with thosewho sell tickets.

A driver will slip an FCFA 500 into the hands of a tollgate personnel and drives off and during his return trip; he will be allowed to pass without paying.

There are also drivers who buy tickets for FCFA 500 at tollgates and preserve the tickets for the return trips. On their return, they slip the tickets into the hands of the tollgate personnel and drive off.

The tollgate personnel will then sell the tickets and pocket the money.

The money generated from tollgates or road tax, according to regulations in force is supposed to be used for the maintenance of major roads across the country.

But the situation in Cameroon is appalling because the road network is at a messy state, while the revenue generated from tollgates ends up in the pockets of the Chiefs of tollgates and their collaborators.