In Mali, transporters are in full preparation for the election of the new office of the Malian Council of Road Transporters (CMTR), which will take place next June. Two months before this crucial election for the future of transport in Mali, the various associations and groups of transporters are engaged in intense negotiations.
On April 13, 2023, the Collective and the Federation of Road Carriers of Mali organized a meeting at the press office, bringing together carriers from Bamako and different regions of the country. The leaders of these associations have warned once morest any attempt at manipulation and fraud aimed at keeping Youssouf Traoré in his post as president of the CMTR.
This meeting focused on two essential points: the end of the CMTR’s mandate and the setting up of a new office, as well as the management of the crossing right funds, the file of which is still pending before the economic pool. Despite the difficulties that carriers are facing today, they remain united and support the highest authorities in the country for the smooth running of the transition.
For Boubacar Coulibaly, vice-president of the Union of Transporters by Bus of Mali (STA), this meeting is an opportunity to challenge the president of the transition, Colonel Assimi Goita, so that he finally takes an interest in this sector. transport which is suffering and that it does everything to ensure that the renewal of the CMTR office is done according to the rules of the art in order to avoid a post-election crisis which would weaken the country. Carriers are indeed confronted with road hassles which weigh considerably on the smooth running of transport in Mali.
Malick Diallo, from the Fédération des Groupements des Transporteurs Agréés du Mali (FGTRAM), considers that the root of the problem is deep and that the Ministry of Equipment and Transport has become a problem for transporters. According to him, the current crisis has reached a point where the confidence between the carriers and their supervisory ministry has diminished, because the latter has shown its limits with regard to the application of the texts governing the CMTR. The department is therefore disqualified and in a state of foreclosure.
With regard to the management of the crossing rights fund, the leaders of the Collective and the Federation of Road Transporters of Mali claim to provide all the information to the Malian justice system, in particular to the economic pool, which is responsible for shedding light on this management described as opaque by the carriers.
