Current happenings at the Sierra Leone Roads Safety Authority is nothing to write home about.
The new management at the helm had derailed all the gains achieved so far at the Authority over the years.
This last week has seen the incarceration of a number of drivers who have paid for their licenses to the SLRSA but the Authority had only gave them phone Numbers: 087 426196 /088 805326 rather than receipts as if it is always the case when people pay for goods and services.
James Mutuah, a driver was arrested and detained at the Calaba Town Police on Tuesday just because he could not provide a receipt to the Joint Road Safety Corps and Police raids which had arrested him because he does not have a license to show that he has paid for his licenses.
James Mutuah had paid for his licenses at the Authority since Monday 16th December and because he had no proof in the form of a receipt to show it to the Joint Police /Road Safety Corps team, he had to suffer.
An attempt to reach the owner of 088805326 who claimed to be in charge of issuing or facilitating the issuance of licenses justified to me via this phone number that this was what they are giving to drivers at the Authority as receipts for licenses.
The SLRSA under Panda Noah as Executive Director has not produced any results at the Authority.
The SLRSA has not been able to bring or print licenses on time and as a result, the Authority is now giving out fake papers as licenses with no seals, thereby opening-up the flood gate for criminals to manufacture fake licenses.
The condition of various vehicles plying the routes in terms of the mechanics and seating capacity is un-imaginable.
Vehciles plying the Calaba Town, Wellington and Waterloo routes in the east and Tengbeh Town, Kingtom, Aberdeen, Goderich and other areas in the west are heavily loaded with no respect for the humanness of the ordinary Sierra Leonean that cannot afford a private car or vehicle of his own.
An Authority determined to have a new direction should have addressed the ugly scenario with a view to improve the dignity of the ordinary Sierra Leonean who is currently suffering as a result of the ineffectiveness of the SLRSA and the callousness of illiterate and self-seeking drivers.
The SLRSA is the constitutionally mandated Authority charged with issuing licenses to drivers that ply our routes but how comes that we are still a very good number of hooligans mostly driving decent people through the streets of Freetown and the provinces?
How comes that we still have heavily overloaded buses and passenger vehicles and the SLRSA is quite and complacent about the situation?
The only thing the SLRSA can pride itself since coming to power is to superintend a very un-transparent and un-accountable recruitment process which succeeded in flooding our stress with road safety corps who are heavily engaging in extorting our riders, thereby causing untold problems for drivers and subsequently the passengers.
The issue of superintending a process which will direct pedestrians how to walk on the city streets is in no way an achievement that we will countenance as far as the management of the SLRSA is concerned.
There is a wrong direction at the Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority and somebody needs to call them to order.
A Wrong Direction at SLRSA!
