DVLA Workers Angry With Mills

By Sedi Bansah

There is uneasy quietness among workers of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) over what they believe is a grand scheme by elements within the Mills administration to gradually render them unemployed by giving their jobs some private individuals connected to the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

The workers at the DVLA yesterday had the fear of losing their jobs heightened when the Greater Accra Regional Licensing Officer, Mr. Vincent Fiati, relayed to them a directive that every vehicle will, from August 1, this year, be inspected and issued with roadworthiness certificate at the private garages before they are registered at the DVLA.

Reports gathered by The Herald say that the workers are angry at President John Mills for sitting down unconcerned as some of his men give away their jobs to that private garages linked to Joe Osei-Wusu, ex-Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the DVLA and Dr. Richard Anane, ex-Roads Transport Minister in the Kufuor Administration.

The DVLA workers are shocked that President Mills has not found it expedient to pay a visit or meet them in spite of petitions and media reports over attempts to sell off DVLA to a gang of politicians. They argue that DVLA generates money into state coffers, hence President Mills must treat it just as he did to the Customs officers in Tema

The fear stems from the fact that DVLA, though ranks as the third internal revenue harvester for the country, has for selfish interests, been under-resourced by politicians linked to the NPP and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in order to take over its lucrative operations.

Meanwhile, additional information available to The Herald suggests that some monies have exchanged hands with one of state officials involved in the DVLA privatization deal, buying two expensive Devtraco Estate houses for his two wives.

They revealed that even before Transport Minister Collins Dauda and the DVLA boss, Justice Amegashie, declared and flooded newspapers and the radio stations with advertisements that the private garages were taking over vehicle inspection on June 1, 2011, DVLA had been stripped from most of its operations to only issuing roadworthiness certificates and licenses.

The other activities like eye-testing, testing of head lamps and others had been handed over to private operators who ply their trade on the premises of the DVLA, with those paid by the state to do that same job, reduced to mere spectators.

What is interesting is that though the DVLA is supposed to be registering vehicles, it is a private company that provides the registration plates, hence its role now is mainly paper work. This arrangement started during the tenure of Mr. Osei-Wusu.

The Herald further gathered that workers at the DVLA have been expecting that their union leader, Mr. Andy Amenarkpor and his executive, would organize them and stage a protest against the blazing scheme to sell DVLA and send them home, but there has been an unwary silence from them.

This has led to suspicion that the leaders have been bought by the politicians hence their inaction at the unfolding process that will eventually culminate in they being declared redundant and sent home with nothing.

Mr. Amenarkpor, however, has told The Herald that in spite of the fears of the workers, he has called several times for a meeting to find ways of addressing the menace that is staring them in the face, but strangely, his executives and other opinion leaders among the workers, have maintained a lukewarm attitude to his calls.

He denied taking a pesewa from anybody, especially those pushing for private garages.

“I don’t know Dr. Richard Anane; I believe he doesn’t know me anywhere, so how is he going to sort me out in this matter,” Mr. Amenarkpor told The Herald, maintaining that he had never been handed money supposed to be coming from anybody in relation to the matter.

Mr. Amenarkpor tried to downplay the role of the CEO of DVLA, saying he has not been comfortable with the fostering of private garages on the DVLA to do vehicle inspection when the DVLA itself has not been adequately resourced to do the vehicle inspection, irrespective of the fact that revenue coming from it is enormous.

The Herald has gathered that the supposed garage owners are simply front men for some politicians who have seen the goldmine in the venture, together with Collins Dauda exerting pressure on Mr. Amegashie to expedite the involvement of the private garages in the affairs of the DVLA.

Mr. Dauda, upon assuming office as the Minister of Transport, rushed first to inspect and pass the private garages as ready to engage in vehicle inspection.

“He did not bother to visit the DVLA, one of the urgent sectors under his ministry, to acquaint himself with the developments there,” a worker lamented.

The DVLA workers, The Herald gathered, are contemplating meeting President, Mills to discuss the threat that the private garages pose to their livelihood, as well as revenue generation for the country. of late, the media has been awash with adverts touting the benefits of private participation in vehicle inspection, claiming that its advent will end the carnage on our roads, as though new cars never get involved in accidents.

The Herald has observed that the little but expensive machines that had been procured for its operations have either been obsolete or left to rust under unbelievable conditions at the expense of the taxpayer.

Since The Herald broke the story that climb lifts meant to hoist vehicles up for the inspection of their under, purchased at the cost of thousands of dollars have been left in the open at the mercy of the weather for close to six years, nobody in authority, not even the sector minister, Alhaji Collins Dauda, has visited or tried to address the problem.