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Ministry gives traffic police Shs6 billion
By Andrew Bagala
Posted Friday, August 5 2011 at 00:00
The Ministry of Finance has released Shs6.7 billion collected from traffic Express Penalty Scheme (EPS) to police to improve the welfare of the traffic department. The Police Undersecretary, Mr Rogers Muhirwe, confirmed the development to Daily Monitor on Wednesday.
This is the second time the finance ministry is returning EPS funds to police in an effort to empower the traffic department in their activities. “The funds will be included in our budget and we shall use it to service a debt that remained on the purchase of the first batch of police cars (in 2009),” Mr Muhirwe said on telephone.
In 2009, the finance ministry remitted all the Shs4 billion which was collected to the police and the funds were used to purchase saloon cars for senior police officers. Police said the funds will be used to service a Shs5 billion debt with their car dealer that they have to service in three phases and the rest to improve the welfare of the traffic officers.

What is EPS?
The EPS was introduced by the Ministry of Works and Transport in 2002 under the Traffic and Road Safety Act 1998 as an alternative way of punishing errant motorists. According to the scheme, a motorist is given an express penalty ticket with a specified amount of money depending on the offence. He or she has to pay to the consolidated fund bank accounts in 21 days.
After the payments, the motorist takes back the bank receipt to police for clearance. However, of recent the scheme has been dogged by failure of some motorists to pay EPS after issuance, and forgeries of bank receipts by errant motorists.
Last year, police issued EPS tickets worth Shs11.9 billion but only 56.6 per cent was paid less than the 87.1 per cent that was collected in 2009. This prompted police to resort to holding vehicles of errant motorists until they pay the money.