The immediate past chairman of the Roads and Transport Committee of Parliament, Kennedy Osei-Nyarko, has called out the Ministry of Roads and Highways for issuing a statement over the weekend suspending an Act of Parliament, the National Roads Authority 2024 Act 1118.

This Act seeks to manage Ghana’s road infrastructure by merging the Ghana Highways Authority, the Department of Urban Roads, and Feeder Roads.

According to the MP, it is rather shocking that the sector minister, Governs Kwame Agbodza, who took former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s government to task for abolishing road tolls without recourse to Parliament, is overseeing such an action.

He points out that Parliament, as the legislative body, is the right avenue to address any concerns arising from the implementation of the law, and not through an executive fiat.

“Come to Parliament with an amendment for the portion they feel there is an issue with," he said.

"I have picked up information that the National Labour Commission wrote to the Ministry to suspend the implementation.

"Does an independent body have such powers? The NLC is created by an Act passed by Parliament; if they think some workers are going to be affected, they have two avenues to use: either the affected workers should petition Parliament, or they should go to court to seek a review."

He further advised the sector minister to move cautiously, stating that he is starting on a bad note and should withdraw the press release and apologize to Parliament and the people of Ghana for taking a decision he does not have the power to make.

Kennedy Osei-Nyarko further explained the rationale behind the Act, including addressing some mischiefs and challenges that have bedeviled the road sector for a very long time.

"If you look at the Roads and Highways Ministry, there are about three key agencies: the Highways Authority, Urban Roads, and Feeder Roads. They cannot be doing the same work, hence the need to merge them.

"We do not have enough resources to do everything because of resource constraints. We want to utilize the little resources we have. When you have a sector that duplicates the role of the other agencies, it delays projects and leads to insufficient maintenance on our road network."

He continued, "So, in the wisdom of the past government, they thought it wise that it should come under one authority, which will deal with all these issues.

"It is a very good thing to have one authority to manage all these three agencies. For work schedules to be known, that was the idea behind passing this law.

"There was extensive consultation, and an Act was passed by Parliament. We spent a lot of resources, time, and everything to pass this Act, only for the new government, led by its minister, to issue a press statement that it has suspended the implementation of an Act of Parliament. The question is, does the Executive arm of government have such powers?"