The University of Ghana is likely to restart the charging of road tolls soon. This follows the Supreme Court’s dismissal of a case against the school over its decision to charge road tolls to offset a GH¢8 million loan it contracted for rehabilitation of its roads.
According to Citifmonline.com, the move is as a result of government’s failure to reimburse the university as it had promised when authorities introduced the road tolls in February 2014.
In an interview, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Ernest Aryeetey revealed that his checks at the bank indicate that the Ministry of Roads and Highway’s financial commitment had not yet been met.
“Government as far as I know is doing what it can to make payments but I also know that the Bank has not received any payment.”
Prof Aryeetey noted that, although the University had suspended the collection of road tolls, it had not ruled out going back on the idea.
According to him, the outcome of the suit against the University at the Supreme Court was much expected, adding that, “right from the beginning, we knew there was no constitutional matter here. Indeed I can go further and say there was no legal issue there. Parliament had said the University of Ghana was within its rights as far as the law was concerned to do what it did.”
Prof Aryeetey further explained that the management of the university would meet to discuss the way forward as far as the collection of road tolls was concerned.
“As a university we have to sit down and take into account all that has happened and decide what we want to do but for the avoidance of doubt, there is no legal impediment to do what we did,” he noted.
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