Protecting lives and public assets through government vehicle insurance

Honourable Speaker, I rise to speak on a matter of life, justice and public trust: the continued exemption of government vehicles from compulsory third-party insurance. Mr Speaker, when a family loses a mother, a father or a child on our roads, its grief does not depend on the number plate of the vehicle that caused the loss. A child is no less an orphan because the vehicle was state-owned.

The law we make, and the law we exempt Mr. Speaker, the Motor Vehicles (Third Party Insurance) Act, 1958 (Act 42) is sixty-eight years old. Section 1 forbids any person to use, or permit the use of, a motor vehicle unless a third-party policy is in force. Breach is an offence, punishable by a fine of up to 250 penalty units, one year’s imprisonment, or both.

Nonetheless, the same Act exempts the user of a vehicle owned by, or exclusively employed in the service of, the Government while it is used for Government purposes. We demand of the trader, the taxi driver and the tricycle rider what the State does not demand of itself. The scale of the carnage Mr. Speaker, the National Road Safety Authority reports that 2,949 Ghanaians died in 14,743 road crashes in 2025.

That is the highest annual toll in 35 years, up from 2,494 deaths in 2024, a rise of 18.2 per cent. A further 16,714 people were injured, and 2,561 pedestrians were knocked down. Since 1991, road crashes have claimed 63,599 lives. Police MTTD figures, compiled separately, record 2,151 deaths in 10,157 crashes between January and September this year, about eight lives every day.

The NRSA estimates that crashes cost the nation more than US$230 million annually, about 1.7 per cent of GDP. The State’s vehicles travel the same roads. Ambulances, school buses, official cars and agency pick-ups are not protected from crashes and do not make exceptions for the people they hit. An exposure we have long known Mr. Speaker, in 2018, a Senior Minister explained that government vehicles were not insured as a matter of policy, because the State was prepared to pay compensation rather than buy cover.

In 2022, the Public Accounts Committee’s findings were cited in this House: more than 18,000 government vehicles, with some 98 to 99 per cent uninsured. In July 2024, a GETFund school bus without insurance was involved in a crash near Koforidua, leaving the victims without any insurance benefit. And only this July, the Minister for Health told the Government Assurance Committee that the entire national ambulance fleet was uninsured when he assumed office, leaving the State to bear the full cost of repairs after crashes.

I commend the Minister for correcting that. His action proves the principle: insuring state vehicles is practical, and it should not stop at ambulances. Why “the Government will pay” is not a safeguard Mr. Speaker, it is argued that Government can simply self-insure. However, self-insurance without a ring-fenced fund is a promise on paper. The victim must petition a ministry, sue the Attorney-General, and then wait for a budget line that may not exist.

The National Insurance Commission has itself said that the processes Ghanaians face to obtain compensation from state-owned vehicles are far from straightforward, and has sought a review of this very exemption. Insurance offers something better. Under Act 42, insurers must satisfy judgments obtained against the insured, and third parties hold enforceable rights against the insurer.

Compensation becomes a right, not a favour. For the State, a premium is a known, budgetable cost; an open-ended judgment debt is not. Premiums spread risk, and they bring to public fleets the claims discipline that private fleets already accept. Equality, accountability and confidence Mr. Speaker, Article 17 of our Constitution declares that all persons are equal before the law.

A law that binds citizens but excuses the State fails that test. It also weakens confidence in the insurance system itself, because the public will not trust a regime that the State declines to join. When Government insures its fleet, it demonstrates leadership in compliance, and it strengthens the sector it asks citizens to patronise. A non-partisan call to action Mr Speaker, this is not an indictment of one administration.

Successive governments, including mine, left this exemption untouched. Fixing it should be a test we all pass. I therefore call on Government to: Bring amendments to Act 42, with the National Insurance Commission and the Attorney-General, to remove the exemption for government vehicles. Direct all Ministries, Departments and Agencies to insure their fleets now, and register them on the Motor Insurance Database, without waiting for the amendment.

Provide for the premiums in the 2027 Budget, and publish an audit of the State’s vehicle fleet and its insurance status. Mr. Speaker, a State that asks its citizens to insure must be willing to insure itself. Let us give every victim of a road crash the same assurance of compensation, whoever was at the wh