Congestion at Road Traffic jolts Chilima into action

Vice president Saulos Chilima has ordered officials at the Directorate of Road Traffic and Safety Services (DRTSS) to fix the systems at the directorate to ease congestion.

Chilima, who is also minister of Economic Planning and Public Sector Reforms, said this after meeting Minister of Transport and Public Works and his management team to, what he said on his Facebook wall, motivate them and obtain a buy-in on the public sector reforms.

He says it is disappointing to note that the quick wins that were obtained at the directorate have backtracted, saying this has seen the congestion that was nearly eliminated.

“I have since implored DRTSS to ensure that the system handovers from the consultant  to the department are expedited and completed by September, 2020,” he says.

He also says that he has asked the department to prioritise establishing a special vehicle inspection service bay for trucks and buses to ensure that revenue from this service does not fall through the cracks.

“It is this administration’s goal that sources of revenue must be efficient if we are to develop this country,” said Chilima.

The vice-president said while he has welcomed a proposal for devolution of the transport sector and was  ready to support concrete plans to be put forward, expressed satisafaction that progress on improving rail transport has been registered.

Chilima is this week meeting Cabinet ministers – three –daily – to orient them on the reforms drive

The meetings follows similar ones between the Vice-President and head of parastatatls as well as the private sector on the agenda.