Transport Minister fires DVLA

The Minister of Transport, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, says the Ghanaian public is increasingly becoming intolerant of perceived corruption and poor service delivery at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA).

According to him, many of the authority’s clients consider it to be the worst in terms of service delivery, thereby creating avenues for middle men, popularly known as ‘goro boys,’ to take advantage of the stifling bureaucratic system at the place.

He has therefore asked management of the DVLA to quickly deal with the ‘goro boys’ syndrome at their various offices.

“This is the complaint from the public. The people have been accusing you (staff of DVLA) of corruption and deliberate delay in delivering service to them. We don’t want you to create a problem and benefit from it,” the minister said.

He observed that the consequences of the ‘goro boys’ syndrome are road accidents resulting from the issuance of driver’s licence to undeserved persons and road worthiness stickers to rickety and defective vehicles.

Speaking in an interaction with staff and management at the Kumasi office of the DVLA during a day’s working visit, the transport minister called on DVLA management to help ward off the negative tag as the authority is critical to the transportation sector.

“The lives of people are in your hands. Stop cutting corners and let’s work hard to engender the confidence of the public whom we all serve,” he urged.

Mr. Asiamah, who was accompanied by his deputy, Daniel Nii Kwartei Titus-Glover, the chief director and other officials of the transport ministry, also visited the Metro Mass Transit (MMT) where he was greeted with a barrage of challenges.

The minister said transportation remains one of the key sectors of the economy, but unfortunately for Ghana, 90 percent is controlled by the private sector whilst the remaining 10 percent owned by the state, has been rendered ineffective as a result of poor management and revenue leakages.

“President Kufuor’s government left behind over 1,200 buses for MMT, but currently, it has less than 500 buses. It also owes government GH?150 million. Its performance has been impeded by bad management,” he bemoaned.

The minister asked for the support of the workers, disclosing that the government had decided to revamp the MMT for it to take its rightful place in the industry.

Albert Adu Boahen, Deputy Managing Director of MMT in-charge of operations, pledged the commitment of the new management to turn the situation round.

He revealed that management was coming up with a number of measures and policies to stem the tide of revenue leakages, and mentioned electronic ticketing and route targeting as some of them.

The minister’s visit also took him to the Boankra inland port where structures have been left deteriorating, and later to the State Transport Company (STC).