Filenews 20 December 2024
The legislation was passed in May 2018 and it took 6 1/2 years, five ministers passed through the Ministry of Justice, the penalty grades were changed and just the other day the tender for the establishment and operation of the Training School for Offending Drivers was announced.
The offer to find the private contractor who will undertake the establishment and operation of the School has an estimated cost of €890,000, which together with VAT will exceed one million euros. This is not the first project to get stuck on paper, however, it is also about saving lives, which is why it should have been a priority. If one calculates that since '18, when the legislation was passed, more than 270 lives have been lost on asphalt, then one realizes that even if a life were saved, it would be successful.
The budget of the Ministry of Justice has already included a budget of €400,000 for the year 2025, with the aim of purchasing services from the private sector for the establishment and operation of the Driving Training School. It is noted that a similar fund was included in the budgets of the Ministry of Justice of previous years, but the school never functioned.
The background of the case goes back to May 2017 when the Council of Ministers of Nikos Anastasiades, decided following a proposal by the Minister of Justice, Ionas Nicolaou, to establish the School, with the aim of reducing road fatalities and consolidating proper road consciousness. A year later, the Parliament passed the law establishing it. According to Article 42 of the "Driving License Law", the Courts are given the power to impose on offending drivers as an alternative penalty, the obligation to attend the said school courses and upon successful completion, acquire the right to delete penalty points that will allow them to drive again.
Although the Driver Training School is a great innovation and an extremely important tool in shaping road consciousness and developing road safety, it has not been possible to operate until today, since studies had to be done on how it would work, what legal background it would have and who would do the courses. In fact, a lot was spent on studies by firms in order to reach today the announcement of the project. Finally, it seems that the conditions have matured and the day before yesterday the offer was announced by the Ministry of Justice after the actions of the current minister Marios Hartsiotis, who had set the issue among his priorities.
In the meantime, it should be noted that the Parliament in the meantime proceeded with the revision of the law on penalty points and from 12 that provided for someone to be at risk of losing his driving license and being a candidate for "student" at the Training School, they have now increased to 16. Therefore, it should also be legally regulated when a driver, instead of losing his driving licence, will be referred to attend courses instead of other punishment.
I will pay for the courses
According to the law, drivers who complete 12 penalty points or are ordered by the Court after a traffic violation will be referred to the school. In addition, the legislation gives the right to drivers who complete 10 penalty points to apply to the Driving Training School and, if approved, to attend the specialized courses, paying the corresponding fee. Drivers who successfully complete the relevant course will be entitled to delete a number of penalty points.
Specifically, as stated in the legislation, the following will be obliged to attend the specialized courses of the school and participate in similar examinations or practical applications:
>> Persons ordered by a Court.
>> Persons who have been deprived of their driving licence for a period of three months or more.
>> Persons who have completed 12 penalty points.
At the same time, according to an update by the Minister of Justice to MP Charalambos Theopemptou, following a question, it was assured that "within 2024, the Ministry will proceed with the announcement of an offer for assignment to a contractor, who will be responsible for the operation of the Driving Training School as well as the responsibility for hiring qualified teaching staff. The tender documents have been completed and are currently being audited by the Treasury of the Republic, as the competent Public Procurement Authority".
According to the procedure laid down, after the establishment of the school, the Minister of Justice must notify him in the Official Gazette of the Republic of the following:
>> The modules and content of each specialised course, which drivers will follow depending on the nature of the offences committed.
>> The periods during which the school organizes each specialized course and the procedures followed for their attendance.
>> The cases in which a person attending a specialized course must pass a similar examination in order to be considered as having successfully attended the course.
>> The fees will be paid for attending the specialized courses and the penalty points that will be deducted for attending the specialized courses.
Classroom and online courses
According to the announcement, the purchase of services for the "Establishment and Operation of the School of a Specialized Training Course for Offending Drivers" is foreseen.
The services offered by the school will be education and vocational training as follows:
>> Adult education and other educational services.
>> E-learning services.
>> Operation of an educational center.
>> Driving school services.
>> Education and training services.
>> Training services.
>> Security training services.
>> Training programme services.
>> Training seminars.
>> Staff training services.
The cost for the operation of the school is estimated at €890,000 plus VAT, i.e. it will amount to one million euros. It is noted that initially it was planned for the school to operate at the premises of the Traffic Department in Latsia, however, now it is up to the contractor how to handle the issue.
