A Corruption Watch (CW) follow-up investigation has found that the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) and the State Transport Company Ltd (STC) Driving School have been implementing reforms to address issues exposed by CW’s investigative documentary ‘Money Over Human Lives … Rot @ DVLA Exposed.’
The documentary exposed the illegal activities of some staff of both institutions who charged driving license applicants between Ghc1,200 and Ghc1,800 and assisted the applicants to outwit the official mandatory requirements in total disregard for the danger their unlawful actions posed to road safety.
They unlawfully by-passed critical requirements such as the 10-working-day mandatory driving school enrollment; eye test; computerized examination; in-traffic driving test and road sign test.
Follow up
Corruption Watch undercover investigator, posing as a prospective applicant to the DVLA and the STC Driving School six months after the publication of the documentary, found visible improvement in the discharge of official duties compared to the findings in the documentary.
The focus of the follow-up investigation was on two aspects considered as the most critical in the entire license acquisition process – the mandatory eye test and the mandatory 10-working-day theory and practical training at a DVLA accredited driving school.
DVLA
Mandatory Driving School Requirement
Applicants are required to get enrolled in a driving school accredited by DVLA for a 10-working-day theory and practical training as part of the requirements to become licensed drivers. The attendance record, as well as a reference number from the school are needed to qualify for the Computerized Examination at DVLA.
However, the Money Over Human Lives investigation found that instead of directing applicants to the driving schools, DVLA staff were rather selling the driving school reference numbers inside DVLA at varying rates of Ghc150 and Ghc200 and the Premium office was one of the main points of sale.
At the premium office, some staff attached the unlawful price of the reference number to the cost of the Stage 1 of the license acquisition. Some DVLA officials provided applicants with attendance records despite not enrolling in any driving school after receiving illegal payments from these applicants. They exempted the applicants from enrolling for the highly needed professional driving training.
The CW investigator visited the Premium Office of the 37 DVLA, the illegal sales point of the Reference Numbers as found in the documentary, but this time, noticed an improvement in the discharge of official duties with professional standards.
The staff did not sell a reference number to the investigator who had visited the office as an applicant but rather directed the investigator to submit a form to a driving school and indicate to the school that the investigator had commenced the process at DVLA and was directed to send the forms to the driving school.
The school will take the investigator through the required processes and the forms will be returned to DVLA to be scheduled for the computerized examination. It is important to note that at the time of filing the Money Over Human Lives … Rot @ DVLA Expose‘ report, this detailed information provided by the staff was not provided to applicants. It was replaced with the illegal sale of the reference number.
When the investigator pointed out to the staff that she already knows how to drive, the staff emphasized that the investigator still had to enroll in a driving school as part of the mandatory requirements. Previously, this information from the applicant was enough to skip all the mandatory processes with money.
Mandatory Eye test
The mandatory eye test which was previously conducted inside the DVLA offices has also been outsourced to some selected eye clinics to professionally execute the eye test after which details of the applicants, together with the test result is directly submitted by the eye clinics to DVLA as well as a copy given to the applicant to present to DVLA.
These eye clinics, among other things, are required to diagnose whether the applicant requires a vision aid in the form of medicated glasses or they are not qualified to drive in extreme cases of bad vision. These clinics have DVLA posters posted at their facility to indicate to the general public that they are DVLA accredited.
‘Money Over human Lives’ Eye test findings
The documentary exposed how applicants who had eye problems were assisted by DVLA staff to pass the eye test once they paid the illegal GHc1,200 and above. This illegal practice helped individuals who originally should not drive at all or who should drive only with prescribed glasses get a license even with very bad eyesight and thereby exposing themselves and other road users to danger.
The outsourcing of the eye test cuts off the involvement of DVLA staff in the eye test to avoid manipulations of the results.
One other change noticed was the restriction of identification at DVLA to Ghana Card only where persons without the Ghana card are disqualified from applying for a drivers’ license. It was also found that foreigners in Ghana in need of drivers license are mandated to provide their non-citizenship cards to qualify.
STC
The State Transport Company Ltd (STC) Driving School was also implicated in the investigative piece. The investigation found that a receptionist at STC driving school was diverting applicants who visited the school to fulfil the mandatory driving school enrolment requirement to a driving instructor who in turn charged Ghc1,300 from the applicants and in exchange, helped the applicants avoid enrolling to acquire the required driving training and knowledge but got them the reference numbers and attendance record and actually assisted the applicants to get the license in one week, despite not being qualified.
Following the release of the documentary, Management of the driving school interdicted and subsequently dismissed the two staff implicated in the story.
Six months on, the investigator visited the school on two occasions and was attended to by different staff on each occasion. On both visits, the staff discharged their official duties professionally without diverting the investigator (prospective client of the school) to any individual for the official processes to be bypassed.
They went straight to the point to provide the requirements for the enrollment, the cost, which they said was Ghc1,895 comprising the training and driving license.
They also disclosed that the DVLA has intensified supervision, hence DVLA officers visit the school to inspect their operations regularly.