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Minister of Transport, Dr. Saadi al-Krunz, announced that the ministry
is soon to impose fines on motorists' traffic offenses starting next
November. This effort will be in coordination with all relevant traffic
and transportation regulatory authorities. He stressed that the ministry
is keen on taking part in drawing up and revising the executive bylaws
of this system with all relevant institutions, including control
authorities and civil society institutions before such bylaws are
finally endorsed on the due date.
Following the workshop that was arranged by the Coalition for
Accountability and Integrity- AMAN, and held in its headquarters in
al-Bireh, al-Krunz explained that this system will have several benefits
on many different levels. The new system is expected to reduce traffic
offenses and ease the state of judicial malaise when it comes to traffic
offense cases. With 50% of financial penalties going to the public
treasury through the Ministry of Finance, a considerable financial
income will be secured. On the other hand, the other 50% will be
allocated to local authorities through the Ministry of Local Government
in accordance with the relevant applicable law.
Al-Krunz underlined the importance of governmental and non-governmental
institutions having complementary roles, as he applauded the
participation of all parties relating to road traffic regulation who
worked hard to bring this vision to light.
"Our goal is to follow through the legal set required to build up the
institution". Said al-Krunz, highlighting the need to expedite the
issuance of the executive bylaws of the Traffic Act No. 5 of year 2000,
and to remedy and amend the existing legal loopholes concurrently with
the establishment of the High Traffic Council.
He confirmed that this system is aimed at easing the citizens concerns
and efforts by providing full details on the offense and how to handle
it properly, given the fact that courts, burdened and overcrowded by
relevant issues, are facing numerous problems processing and hearing
such cases. In addition, citizens are constantly complaining about the
complicated procedures followed in this regard. This has resulted in
offenses being downplayed and not taken seriously by motorists.
He also noted that efforts are steered toward using Demerit Point System
against offenders, where the accumulation of too many points over a
given period or time can lead to additional penalties, including fines
and suspension or revocation of the driver's license for good. Driving
offense point system will make sure that any offender will lose some or
all of their driving privileges and face strict penalties that are not
limited to fines.
Al-Krunz added that it is necessary for the Ministry of Transport,
Traffic Police and Ministry of Interior to work cohesively with one
another to make the procedures followed regarding the offense fines as
easy as possible.
He noted that the ad-hoc technical committee takes into account that it
is essential to outline and classify offenses, and establish a
well-defined link between the Police Directorate General, Licensing
Division and Ministry of Finance. This will guarantee transparent
procedures during this process, especially that it involves public
financial revenues. The technical committee is also aware that
coordination with the judicial authority, particularly magistrate courts
that hear such cases, is a key step for the implementation of this
system.
"An electronic communication between these institutions is required to
be set up to make sure procedures take place swiftly and smoothly", said
al-Krunz, explaining that the system is intended to regulate and control
the traffic status, which is associated with halting the current
lawlessness.
He also stated that the Palestinian National Authority and the
Palestinian community are sustaining a notable surge in traffic
accidents, most of which are fatal. This makes the endorsement of this
system a perfect solution to deter repeat offenders of traffic laws;
thus reducing road injuries and fatalities whilst also streamlining the
legal process.
Al-Krunz reasserted that the Ministry of Transport, the cabinet and the
technical committee are willing to receive any creative suggestions or
amendment proposals that would contribute to the endorsement of this
system and ensure its accuracy and viability. Worthy mentioning is that
this system is the first of a kind to be endorsed in the Palestinian
Territories, and it is expected to promote and
help better implement legal knowledge.
Dr. Azmi Shuaibi, AMAN's Commissioner for Combating Corruption, stressed
the importance of discussing and examining this system, being part of
the master executive bylaws of the Traffic Act of year 2000. He
explained that the endorsement of these master bylaws is intended to
replace the current citizen-unfriendly system and help facilitate
processing traffic offense procedures.
Shuaibi affirmed that the examination of this system is aimed at
enforcing the existing laws and probing mechanisms to reorganize the
current situation in a way that saves good time and efforts for all
involved parties. He noted that the most important step to take now is
to endorse the enforcement and implementation mechanisms.
During his argument on regulating procedures for the purposes of
effectiveness and facility, Shuaibi discussed two approaches of this
matter. The first approach follows the same procedures implemented
currently, where offenders are referred to court, while the second binds
offenders to pay penalties. Should any offender object, they may go to
court and contest traffic citation.
He also underscored the significance of discussing the maximum and
minimum values of fines especially that the current system stipulates
specific amounts irrespective to whether an offender is compliant or
defaulter concerning adherence to the payment of fines.
What makes this system most needed is the fact that courts’ dockets are
always overflowing with traffic offense charges. Representative of the
High Judicial Council, Judge Raed Abdulhamid confirmed that traffic
offense charges range between 1500-2000 monthly, which bottlenecks
performance of judges and other court officers. He also said that cases
where defendants are acquitted are quite scarce, which means that a new
intelligent approach to this problem must be created.
Abdulhamid suggests that a special traffic tribunal should be created to
hear traffic offense cases on specific dates that are announced to the
public in order to avoid accumulation of cases which usually results in
many other ones being delayed.
According to the system, the proposed fines are of five levels, ranging
between N.I.S 50 to N.I.S 750. Participants in the workshop carefully
considered such issues that are contained in the system. They were fully
aware that it is important to set a variety of amounts for tickets,
taking into consideration the bad economy and its impact on citizens.
However, some participants were against the idea of considering the
economic situation and thought that the fine is intended to have a
strong deterrent effect.
The workshop featured representatives of the Ministry of Transport, High
Judicial Council, the Independent Commission for Human Rights- ICHR,
Ministry of Local Government, Union of Buses and Taxicab Companies'
Owners, Municipality of Ramallah, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of
Health, Traffic Police, Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, Driving
Schools Union, Palestinian Fund for Road Traffic Accident Compensation.
Participants reviewed a set of regionally implemented mechanisms, and
unanimously agreed that it is necessary to create an intelligible and
transparent system, since many different parties are directly as well as
indirectly related to such.
Concluding the session, Shuaibi announced that AMAN is willing to
receive any written input or suggestion regarding this system. Such
input will be considered for examination and may be filed as a
recommendation to the cabinet prior to enforcement.
It
is note worthy that this workshop is arranged by AMAN, and is intended
to serve its goals of enhancing accountability and transparency across
public institutions. Such workshops allow discussion of multiple issues
directly pertaining to laws and executive bylaws; and introduce ways to
implement these in an integral and transparent manner
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