The Minister of Works, Dr. Amani Bouqmaz, has submitted a request to the Council of Ministers to cancel the Public Authority for Roads and Land Transport, in light of evaluating the authority’s experience since its inception.
Informed sources told Al-Qabas that, “Over the course of 8 years of the establishment of the authority, the total expenditures on projects exceeded 2.7 billion dinars, in addition to employee salaries and other administrative costs, costs that were not reflected in improving the quality of roads as hoped, but rather continued to deteriorate.”
The sources added that the authority “has failed, since its inception, to implement the role assigned to it according to the decree of its coming to light, whether at the level of developing mass transportation in the country, organizing it and implementing its projects, or at the level of improving the quality of the country’s roads and streets.”
The sources pointed out that in light of the government’s austerity policy, restoring the role of the road bandits in the ministry and abolishing the authority are two things that are deserved, especially since the sector has performed the same functions since the establishment of the ministry.
The sources added this approach still needs to investigate the position of the Fatwa and Legislation Department, which has already been addressed and is awaiting its response, as it is expected to undertake the preparation of the draft law on repeal, and it will be discussed after that in the Services Committee of the Council of Ministers.
It is also expected that the Council of Ministers will, once the request is approved, refer the draft law to the National Assembly for discussion and vote on it, which may take between 8 months and a year if the implementation proceeds.
The sources said that despite the great ambition that accompanied the issuance of the authority’s decree in 2014 regarding achieving a shift in the level of the country’s road network, the experience of the past years confirmed the failure of the authority to make a difference, as the country’s roads continued to suffer and their level deteriorated significantly from what it was in the past.
10 terms of reference where PART has failed to translate into reality
— Develop mass transit services to achieve economic growth
— Support local transport companies
— Determine the system of parking and describing cars and trucks
— Provide solutions to eliminate traffic jams and developing strategic solutions
— Coordinate with state agencies to exploit state-owned lands in the implementation of road, metro and railway networks
— Determine the transportation tariff, impose fees and collect fines
— Draw up and following up the transportation policy in the country and following up on its implementation
— Develop, manage and maintain road networks and the land transport system
— Install, operate and maintain traffic lights and signs
— Conduct, support and encourage studies and scientific research, and qualifying cadres to manage the transport system
The recent report of the State Audit Bureau made a number of observations regarding the authority’s board of directors, foremost of which was the failure of the board to exercise some of its specific competencies stipulated in the internal regulations, most notably:
— Not issuing a list of transport activities
— The delay in issuing the authority’s tender and auction list
— Not issuing a list of warehouses
— The delay in defining the powers granted to the PART Director General
