RTA, Madang ink partnership

ROAD Transport Authority (RTA) on Friday signed a memorandum of agreement with the Madang provincial government to enable the provision of services.
RTA chief executive officer Nelson Terema said the old Motor Traffic Act (1950) was repealed and replaced by new RTA Act in 2014.
Terema said under the old Motor Traffic Act, there were some delegations made by the superintendent of motor traffic and secretary of Transport department.
“The functions that have been delegated to the province are performed by provinces in the country,” he said.
“When the old Act was repealed this delegation was also being revoked therefore under the new Act, we have the same delegations which have been delegated back to the provinces.”
Terema said as a result all provinces would be performing these functions including vehicle registration, driver licencing, enforcing licencing of passengers and goods and also the licencing of heavy vehicles within the province.
He said the MoA signified that RTA would be working closely with Madang provincial government in performing these functions.
“Over the years, these revenues collected were being retained by the provinces under RTA Act,” he said.
“We have signed this MoU to give the powers back to the provinces. They will continue to generate revenue.
“RTA will only oversee and make sure that whatever is collected goes back to the provinces.”
Terema said provinces would take ownership and RTA would provide training, logistics, information technology infrastructure to improve the current system.