Godlove Bainkong
9 July 2009
Money collected from checkpoints constitutes a sure means of government revenue.
Money raised through the various tollgates on the highways across the national territory, stand out as one of the main contributors to realizing the state income. The payment of this money by the various road users could be a veritable show of patriotism which requires that citizens respect the rules of the land. But beyond this, the importance of this money in developing the economy makes its payment more than respect of laws.
Roads, the point of convergence between revenue collectors and road users, need constant maintenance, where they exist, and development, where they are yet to pass.
It would be inadmissible that roads be used and money raised from other sources to keep them going. The constant maintenance of these roads, which could only be ably done with funds from tollgates is therefore a quick way of developing society and therefore requires that each person who plies these roads willingly pay in the money. There is a popular saying that where a road passes, development follows. For this development to be sustained, the roads must be repaired, when they are bad. In our context where there are no specific roads for specific vehicles, the few existing ones suffer constant degradation and so require constant repairs.
Efforts at getting statistics on how much money is brought from tollgates and how it is precisely used failed as officials were unwilling to talk.
That not withstanding, laid down rules stipulate, among others, that senior government officials pay CFA 5000 per year as tollgates and CFA 5000 per month for other regular users in the vicinity. Generally, the amount per passage is CFA 500. The amounts appear negligible but the number of vehicles that ply the roads on a daily basis vis-à-vis the amounts make up a substantial package in swelling the state envelop.
However what obtains on the field appears to be everything but a show of patriotism and the respect of rules by many road users, on one hand, and collectors on the other hand. Much money would have been raised had the collection been hitch-free.
Reports say many senior government officials use their high offices to evade this important source of state revenue with impunity. A government official who opted for anonymity recounted how a driver of a senior government official recently caused a stir in one of the major checkpoints in the outskirts of Yaounde. It is said that he blatantly refused to pay what was expected of him and when tollgate collectors blocked him, he rang the senior divisional officer of the locality who in turn rallied the forces of law and order to the checkpoint. They reportedly rained insults on the collectors and intimated them into letting go the vehicle without any payment.
This may sound like a folk tale but it could be one of the deviances perpetrated on the highway by people whose amount is not only negligible vis-à-vis their income, but who are also supposed to be models in respecting state rules.
There are also reports of unscrupulous collectors who employ every available means; holy or not, to enrich themselves with the national cake.
To make tollgates what they were meant to be, officials may consider revising its collection. This could be through the printing of not-easily falsifiable tollgate tickets, the regular control of collectors, sensitization of road users on the importance of paying in the money and probably making stricter rules so that collection should be indiscriminate.
Not only would this help in recovering enough money for government action at a time the state is doing everything to survive in the phase of the global economic meltdown, but it would also save the state the shame of corruption which the Head of State, Paul Biya, constantly decries.
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