Enforce Law on Brown Cards

THE General Assembly of the Council of Bureaux of the ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance Scheme has entreated governments in the sub-region to collaborate with their security agencies to ensure that motorists secure and carry their brown cards when travelling within the sub-region.
It has therefore urged all national bureaux of the scheme to embark on rigorous public education to create awareness among the travelling and insuring public concerning how and where they could secure original brown cards.
The General Assembly has, therefore, resolved that the Council must adopt a prototype design for the Brown Card with respect to colour, shape and size.
These and other resolutions were contained in the Assembly’s resolutions passed at the end of five days of deliberations to end the Scheme’s 25th Ordinary Session held in Accra from Monday, October 27 to Friday, October 31, 2008.
At the closing ceremony, which was attended by guests from 15 West African member countries , including both Francophone and Anglophone countries, the Chief Executive of CDH Insurance, Mr Larry Jiage, who was elected the new Chairman of the Scheme, said the new Executives of the Council had resolved to solve existing problems of the scheme with renewed strategies.
He expressed his profound gratitude for being elected as the Chairman of the scheme and promised to do his best to maintain the standards set by his predecessors.
In collaboration with the ECOWAS Commission, the General Assembly had resolved that the Council should identify the unit at the Commission responsible for issues relating to the Brown Card scheme to serve as an interface between the Commission and the Brown Card Scheme.
The General Assembly consequently resolved that a permanent communication link should be established and maintained between the Permanent General Secretariat and the ECOWAS Commission to foster closer collaboration between the two bodies.
Additionally, the Assembly resolved that each Member Country must establish an independent Permanent Secretariat by the end of 2010 in accordance with the requirements of the Protocol.
This resolution was in line with Article 5 of the Protocol which required each member country to have a National Bureau which was independent and financially self-supporting to oversee the affairs of the Brown Card Scheme.
To that effect the Assembly had resolved that all National Bureaux must deposit 174,000 units of accounts in their respective national banks by December 31, 2012.
That, according to the member countries, was to ensure that the Permanent Secretariat got the required financial resources to enable it to carry out its mandate as it was currently faced with serious financial constraints with significant amounts of contributions in arrears.
To facilitate management and speedy settlement of claims between member states, the General Assembly and Council of Bureaux resolved that Inter-Bureaux meetings should be organised at least twice in a year in addition to the Zonal meetings.
It further resolved that each National Bureaux and structure should hold regular meetings with agencies, especially the regulators, to discuss issues of mutual concern, indicating that such meetings must be held at least once every quarter, and a report presented at each annual session.
The Assembly expressed its sincere gratitude to the Ministry of Finance and the President of the Republic, Mr John Agyekum Kufour, for his special interest in the scheme.

Pix saved on machine 135 as Brown Card
Caption- The Chief Executive of CDH Insurance, Mr Larry Jiage (right), in a handshake with the Managing Director of Prime Insurance Company Limited, Mr Ebenezar Allotey (left), after the latter had decorated him with a medallion as the new Chairman of the ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance Scheme.