5 DVLA staff interdicted

Five officials of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) have been interdicted for indulging in various malpractices in their line of duty.

The malpractices they were accused of, include faking of licenses receipt, irregular transfer of payment receipt, irregular transfer of vehicle among others, were as a result of an electronically authenticated payment system introduced by management to check and reduced revenue leakage in the collection system last month.

According to Mr. Rudolph P. K. Beckley, acting Chief Executive, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), the system made sure all payments were electronically authenticated before services are provided to customers.

Mr. Beckley made this known during a familiarization tour by the Minister of Transport, Ms Dzifa Attivor and her Deputy, Mrs. Joyce B. Mogtari, to the Head Office of the Authority in Accra yesterday.

The acting Chief Executive said the Electronically Authenticated Payment system, was being piloted in Accra, Tema and Weija offices of the authority and would soon be rolled out nationwide.

He said as a result of the authenticated system, fake receipts submitted by middlemen had reduced to over 80 percent and added that all DVLA officers would be equipped to be able to verify payments.

Mr. Beckley said the authority had embarked on a number of projects including construction of its head office complex, fencing of properties, automation of operations, computerized-based testing and Private Vehicle Testing Station (PVTS).

He said the Authority’s offices in Tarkwa and Obuasi were in deplorable states, and all efforts were being made to acquire new places for them.

Mr. Beckley said the Authority was facing serious qualified staff challenges nationwide, and that was retarding its progress.

He said another policy being implemented by the Authority was the issuance of driving licence to Junior High School Certificate holders and above after passing a computerized test.

That, he explained would ensure that literate and certified applicants with requisite skills and understanding of road law were issued with driving licenses.

Ms. Dzifa Attivor, Minister for Transport, was appreciative of the activities of the authorities of DVLA, particularly the introduction of the electronically authenticated payment system which she said, “would help reduce if not eliminated Goro boys” in the system to their minimum.