Tamale, Sept. 21, GNA - The Ghana Road Fund Board says it will institute legal action against 10 out of 17 companies that had been contracted to collect road tolls for the Fund.

The companies owed the Fund four billion cedis, which they were supposed to account for within 30 days after collection but had not done so as at June this year, Nana Yeboah Kodie Asare II, Chairman of the Fund said at a forum in Tamale on Wednesday. The forum was to sensitise stakeholders on the role of the Fund in the financing of road maintenance and solicit inputs on how more revenue could be mobilised to sustain the Fund's operations.

District Chief Executives, District Coordinating Directors, Members of Parliament, Contractors, Members of Ghana Private Roads and Transport Union and Officials of the Ghana Highways Authority attended the forum, which was on the theme: "Financing Road Maintenance". Nana Asare II, however, did not mention the names of the defaulting companies, but said the Board had written to them to pay the money into the Fund to avoid any legal action.

He said the Board had since terminated the contract of the 10 companies and had now contracted the Ghana Highways Authority to collect the tolls, pending on the engagement of new companies. Some of the stakeholders suggested the enforcement of haulage control systems between Ghana, Burkina Faso and Mali and also the closing up of all leakages in the collection of the tolls.

They urged the government to consider working on the Yendi-Bimbilla -Nkwanta-Hohoe road, which they said was the shortest to Accra, to facilitate the movement of goods and people to the south. The participants suggested the formation of a body to be responsible for the towing of broken down and accident vehicles on the road for a fee to augment the Fund. 21 Sept. 04