A former Minister for Environment, Science Technology and Innovation, Mahama Ayariga, believes that it is wrong for the government to use state funds to compensate victims of gas explosions and similar accidents largely caused by the negligence of private companies.<\/p>\n
According to him, such practice does not encourage fuel station owners to be responsible in adhering to the safety requirement\u00a0with seriousness.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”VazvFv4i0pgYiueddwaDLsDZ8Py5YZNy”]Mahama Ayariga noted that, if fuel station owners are made to bear the cost of such compensations,\u00a0others\u00a0will be forced to ensure discipline within the industry.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Point Blank<\/strong> on\u00a0Eyewitness News<\/strong> on Wednesday, Mahama Ayariga said, \u201cin the US, UK and in other developed jurisdictions, owners of the facilities will be in the vanguard when it comes to ensuring safety at the facility because they know that if there is any damage to a third party, the government will not pay to help you out. You will be held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think it is wrong\u2026We\u2019ve been engaged in the wrong practice, where somebody starts his business at a location, brings dangerous practice, undertakes to be careful, fails in his duty of care, the product escapes, kills, maims and damages people\u2019s property, and I am made to pay for that while he and his insurers walk away,\u201d he lamented.<\/p>\n While urging victims of fuel station accidents to sue the responsible companies, the Bawku Central legislator said, \u201cIt doesn\u2019t help in the long-term because it doesn\u2019t impose the kind of discipline that we need in the 2,900 other fuel stations in the country, and also in the 599 other gas stations across the country, because what will ensure our collective safety better is that discipline where individuals themselves are ensuring that they buy the best facilities and equipment, they employ the best people to run these facilities, and regularly train them to continue to monitor to ensure that the place is safe.\u201d<\/p>\n Ayariga further insisted that, state agencies or the government ministries must be blamed for fuel stations that do not comply with safety standards.<\/p>\n According to him, the agencies are directly responsible for the issuance of permits and licenses, as well as periodic inspection of fuel companies to ensure they were operating appropriately.<\/p>\n 7 people were killed, with 132 others injured, as two gas explosions occurred at Atomic junction in Accra on Saturday.<\/p>\n The explosions left many structures destroyed with some vehicles totally burnt. The incident has revived discussions about he safety compliance levels of fuel stations in the country, including the role of state agencies in ensuring that fuel stations were operating as expected.<\/p>\n – A former Minister for Environment, Science Technology and Innovation, Mahama Ayariga, believes that it is wrong for the government to use state funds to compensate victims of gas explosions and similar accidents largely caused by the negligence of private companies. According to him, such practice does not encourage fuel station owners to be responsible in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":291936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,11],"tags":[855,3,792],"yoast_head":"\n
\nBy: Jonas Nyabor\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"