EXPOSÉ: How authorities are siphoning monies through overloading trucks & destroying our roads
Kessben FM/TV investigative journalist Malam Yaya has delved deep into how some officials at the Tema harbour and some members of Ghana’s highways have allegedly neglected their core duties to exploit the state through overloading trucks.
The investigation which took about two weeks revealed agents involved in this act of raking from the state had been making weekly sales of about Ghc 5000 to their bosses at the top.
The investigative work by Kessben FM/TV divulged Tema harbour as the main hub for these corrupt practices. These heavy trucks which are mostly headed to neighboring countries like Burkina Faso, Mali, and others are loaded from the Tema Harbour.
The authorities have over the years fought the canker of overloading which has been a major cause of damage to the roads these trucks ply but the efforts seem fruitless as over the years the situation has rather worsen. Trucks that are not supposed to take certain tonnes of loads find means to take above the measured by conniving with some officials at the Tema Harbour.
Agents among these unscrupulous acts at the Tema Harbour will then scatter their men on the highways where they meet the drivers to take their booty. One may have thought since there are so many scale points on the highways, it will be difficult to get these trucks to get to their destinations but no, the clique has a way of beating the system.
The investigation further revealed that the 2nd point of the corrupt practices mainly happens at these scale points where the tonnes of load are weighed, citing the Akom scale off the Offinso road in particular.
After weighing the loads and obviously the machines detecting that the loads are overloaded, these trucks will be set to park in the scale yard instead of unloading the goods. It is at this point where monies are likely to change hands for the trucks to then proceed with their journeys.
The investigative team learned that most of these overloaded trucks are set to leave at wee hours after settling some officials. The team spoke to some drivers of these trucks who bemoaned that they are not excited about the situation, citing that when these trucks are overloaded it does not only destroy the roads but also affect their health as well. So far multiple arrests have been made after the BNI had stepped in.
WATCH OUT FOR THE FULL VIDEO OF THE INVESTIGATIVE PIECE:
Source: kessbenonline.com/ Story by Nazir Hamzah
