Transport Minister-designate Kwaku Ofori Asiamah has suggested that operations at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) should be fully computerised to prevent activities of middlemen, popularly known as ‘goro boys’.
The illegal operations of these ‘goro boys’ have been a perennial problem for DVLA and lead to situations where unsuspecting clients are duped or given fake DVLA licences and certificates.
Answering a question during vetting on how the perennial problem can be curbed, Mr Asiamah told the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Thursday, February 2: “So long as there is human interface in doing some of these businesses, it will create an avenue for them (‘goro boys’). So one thing I will seek to do is to advise them to go for full automation.”
Additionally, Mr Asiamah highlighted that it was time for law enforcers to crack down on the activities of these middlemen with tougher punishments and other measures to deter the perpetrators.
If given the nod as substantive minister, Mr Asiamah said: “We need to educate the public about the existence of these ‘goro boys’ and also try to bring in the enforcement agencies.”
Mr Asiamah, who indicated that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government was committed to a decentralisation of the Authority, expressed the need to have many officers across the country to ease the process and duration of transacting business with the DVLA.
“We need to pursue decentralisation so that there will be a lot of DVLA centres instead of all of us going to the main DVLA office,” he stated.