Company accuses NRSC of selling its idea but NRSC denies

The unfolding drama concerning the mandatory national towing project has taken a new twist as the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) has been accused of selling the mandatory towing concept to Road Safety Management Service Limited (RSMSL) after it received the idea and piloted its implementation.

Officials of Ruttchen Trucks Ghana (RTG) Limited, who claimed ownership of the idea, told journalists at a press conference in Accra last Thursday that after due diligence was done on the feasibility of the concept from 2007 to 2009; the RSMSL was not one of the companies that submitted any interest when proposals were invited.

At the press conference dubbed: “Stop deception and corruption; mandatory towing—the facts and truth Ghanaians must be told”, they warned that should overtures for arbitration fail to settle the issue amicably, they would go to court because the company had copyright to the concept.

NRSC denies

But responding to the allegations, the Public Relations Officer of the NRSC denied the allegations, saying “we have not traded anybody’s idea.”

He, however, said RTG had made similar allegations to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Transport and the Ministry of Transport, which was being addressed by the ministry.

“We will not like to make any further comment until the ministry’s process is completed,” he said.

RTG’s case

However, going into the details, a former Board Chairman of the NRSC, Mr Clifford Johnson Aboagye, said he received the concept while in office as the Board Chairman of the commission and was part of subsequent processes to implement the project until the New Patriotic Party (NPP) lost power to the National Democratic Congress in the 2008 election.

“Contrary to claims by some service providers as owners of the concept, RTG, as documented by the NSRC and Ministry of Transport, conceived, initiated and presented valid documents in respect of the project pending a legislative instrument for a nationwide take off in 2008.

“RSMSL did not conceive, initiate the road towing project and, therefore, has no ownership of the project. It still remains a wonder why a stolen concept will be attributed to a wrongful claimant,” Mr Aboagye, who is currently a consultant to RTG, said.

With public anger compelling authorities to freeze the implementation of the project, he said the mandatory towing proposed by the RTG was not designed to extort high levies from the public but rather to provide valuable and vital services for road users at large.

Beginning

He said in 2008, as part of agreements reached with the NRSC, the company had procured over 60 pieces of land nationwide and procured towing vehicles with the core objective of implementing the project.

He explained that the project of the RTG comprised a proposal to the Motor Traffic and Transport Department, then to the NRSC and finally the seat of government during the tenure of President J.A Kufuor.

Mr Aboagye said the government subsequently set up a committee under his chairmanship in February 2008 to evaluate the proposals received from RTG in 2007 with membership from the National Insurance Commission (NIC), the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) and road transport operators.

“After the work of the committee, RTG was mandated to voluntarily provide towing services on tow-and-collect basis. RTG was to do the mandatory towing when the legal framework has been put in place,” he said.

NRSC commitment

He stated that thereafter, the NRSC continued the process in 2009 and made various arrangements with the RTG.

“The NRSC made it clear to the RTG in 2009 that mandatory towing was to be initiated based on the concept of the RTG. In 2009, RTG was also assured that based on its concept, the laws of the land on voluntary towing would be changed to mandatory,” he said.

“It is for this reason that when the Road Traffic Regulation 2012 (LI 2180) was enacted the voluntary towing was abolished and instead the mandatory towing was introduced.

He, however, stated that on February 9, 2015, after the enactment of the LI 2180, the RTG found out that the NRSC was making moves to give the project to RSMSL, which currently had a contract with the government to implement the project.

“To achieve their objective, the NSRC started to reinvent the wheel by setting up a Financial and Technical Evaluation for all interested companies to be conducted when such evaluation had been done in 2009,” he said.

To validate his claim, he said on March 24, 2009, the RTG wrote to the then Minister of Transport, Mr Mike Hammah.

“The result was that the Ministry of Transport on the instruction of the minister sent someone to Holland to evaluate the financial and technical capacity of RTG’s foreign partners. After a satisfactory report, RTG was assured of the amendment of the towing law so that together with five other companies—Sarkozy, Traffic Management Signs and Systems, Abu and Serwa Katakyie Company Limited and Urmarib Ghana Limited—to start the project.

He said when in 2010 the implementation of the project was delaying, RTG registered it with the Copyright Office.

Mr Aboagye said subsequently, a number of petitions were written to the Office of the President, Senior Minister, Minister of Transport and the Executive Director of the NRSC.