The National Assembly yesterday passed two bills to reform the traffic ticketing and motor vehicle licence renewal processes.
The Summary Jurisdiction (Procedure) (Amendment) Bill 2012 and the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill 2012, both tabled by Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee, were passed with the support of the parliamentary opposition APNU and AFC.
Speaking on the former, which is intended to strengthen the law to ensure the state receives revenues from ticketing, Rohee told the National Assembly that the state was losing a significant amount of revenues via the non-payment of tickets by offending drivers. He said that in 2009, it was found that a total of 54,090 traffic tickets were issued for various offences countrywide, but payment was only received for 10,362. He said that the figures made a mockery of law enforcement.
The bill provides for increases in penalties for failure to pay traffic tickets, the disqualification of a licensed driver and the procedure where the alleged offender does not appear at the court at the time mentioned in the notice.
Rohee also said that the authorities recognised that the need to put a mechanism in place to ensure that when traffic tickets are issued by a police traffic rank, copies are taken to the Officer-in-Charge of the police station in the district and the clerk of the relevant court. This is catered for in the bill. Those ranks who do not comply with the requirement will be committing an offence and will be liable to be disciplined under the Police (Discipline) Act, the bill also says.
According to Rohee, there are 36 offences for which traffic tickets can be issued but not many motorists are aware of them. He also said that traffic ranks have been demanding that persons take their vehicles to the police station and the vehicles would remain there at the discretion of the police.
Meanwhile, the amendment proposed to the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act caters for licences to be renewed on the anniversary of the date of registration of the vehicle, instead of the previous system which saw all licences expire on December 31, every year.
Although the amendment received the support of both sides of the house, government was criticised for introducing the legislation months after the new system was already implemented by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
APNU MP and former Police Commissioner Winston Felix went as far as to call the situation “unlawful”.
Rohee noted that Home Affairs Ministry has no control over the GRA, which introduced the new system, for which a notification was published by GRA Commissioner-General Khurshid Sattaur. “The mischief with the publication was that there was not an amendment to the Act in place at the time,” he conceded. He added that after consultations the GRA has suspended implementation pending the enactment of the amendment.
In detailing the merits of the new system, Rohee noted that it would ease the congestion that takes place at the Licence Revenue Office and some police stations. He said approximately 94,000 motor vehicle licences were being processed over a three-month period by the GRA under the old system. “I don’t think this is a reasonable proposition that ought to continue since more vehicles are being imported into the country,” he said, while adding that the resulting congestion created the impression that the relevant body was impotent in dealing with the problem.
Felix said that he found it “mind boggling “for the government to be seen breaking the law, while adding that the administration should not have allowed the introduction of the new system without the needed amendment. He said that APNU supported the bill in its entirety but urged that government be mindful of obedience to the law.
Felix also applauded the e-governance aspect of the system and he stated that the government may wish to move a stage further by introducing an interactive programme where one can set up the acquisition of licences via the internet. Such a move, according to him, will significantly remove any build-up of crowds in future.
