By JAMES
KUNDA –
THE Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) has charged that some traffic police officers are corrupt, leading to disjointed road patrols between the two law-enforcement wings.
RTSA chief road traffic inspector Christopher Lesa said his institution was finding it hard to collaborate with traffic police officers during patrols because of low transparency levels of some police officers.
Mr Lesa said this yesterday when RTSA management appeared before the Parliamentary committee on Transport and Communications.
Mr Lesa made the remarks after the committee chaired by United Party for National Development (UPND) Mbabala Member of Parliament (MP) Ephraim Belemu unanimously raised concern about the disjointed RTSA and traffic police patrols.
“Unlike the police, RTSA is not interested in dubious corrupt acts where an offender is meant to pay some fine and allowed to go scot-free without resolving the same problem he was arrested for,” Mr Lesa said. “Issues of transparency have to be re-looked at and this is where there is a challenge in level-pegging with our colleagues.”
Mr Lesa’s sentiments were echoed by RTSA chief executive officer Zindaba Soko who said that his Agency took more of a preventive approach rather than a reactive one.
“Mr chairperson, our role is to resolve a problem and that is why, unlike the police, when an individual is caught driving drunk, we do not allow them to just pay us and go away driving the vehicle in the same state,” Mr Soko said.
Police spokesperson Charity Chanda declined to comment on the allegation, saying a statement could not be issued unless the verbatim of the meeting at Parliament buildings was heard and scrutinised.
Ms Chanda said a statement could only be issued after she acquainted herself with RTSA’s allegation.
“I would want to get the exact words before I can issue a statement because I have not heard anything that was said in that meeting,” Ms Chanda said.