The board of the Driver Vehicle and Licensing Authority (DVLA) is asking employees to desist from aiding middlemen, popularly known as the ‘goro boys’.
‘Goro boys’, most of them swindlers, are middlemen who, for many years, have been disrupting business activities at the DVLA offices.
Delays, especially time spent to acquire drivers’ license, is said to be promoting activities of these ‘goro boys’.
“Our processes were taking too long, someone will pass the test, the test that they fear so much and then they put in their application and for years or months, they will never get the drivers license.
“We think the delay has led to the ‘goro activities’ so they go to someone who can get it for them in few hours or days because of the frustration”, Chief Executive Officer, Kwasi Agyeman Busia, explained.
The DVLA boss hence blamed the persistence of the ‘goro boys’ activities on staff.
DVLA Board Chairman, Frank Davies, also observes that the conduct of employees over the years have been a major disincentive to rooting out these middlemen.
“I get bordered when this issue of ‘goro boys’ is mentioned every now and then. How many of you can beat your chest in this room that you don’t aid the ‘goro boys’ to work here,” he quizzed in a room full of DVLA employees.
“I heard somebody say none, and that is not good enough. That means you have been aiding them to destroy the job you have been employed to do and yet you want better conditions of service,” he said.
Mr Davies, therefore, warned management would be forced to lay off some staff if the trend persists.
“Let’s change our attitude to work. Because If these ‘goro boys’ keep on doing what they are doing here, We might end up not employing the numbers here because you will be rendered redundant.
“Let’s take what we are doing here seriously, we should ourselves be conscious of what we are doing here as employees. If the work you are doing is being done by somebody else then you don’t need to be here,” he reiterated.
According to him, it is important that the employees take a cue from the President’s admonishment during his swearing-in that “we must not be spectators but citizens.”
“So If you are a citizen and you have been employed in an institution and you are helping somebody from outside to come and run your institution down, then you don’t deserve to be here,” he said.
The top DVLA officials made the comments during a working visit to the Ashanti Region branch of the DVLA offices to ascertain at first hand the challenges being faced by the business.
New technology
Meanwhile, the DVLA has introduced technology-driven interventions to reduce delivery time.
Towards the fourth quarter of 2018, the DVLA will introduce Ghanaian Languages in the acquisition of drivers’ license.
That is s according to Kwasi Agyeman Busia, who says Ghanaian languages are being introduced to aid less educated assess their services.
The move, he said, is also to make it easier for people to acquire drivers’ licenses through the right channel.
Mr Agyeman Busia observes that the inability of many Ghanaians to speak fluent English language has become an incentive for the illiterates to seek the services of middlemen to write and pass their tests.
“Let them be certified the right way so we make it easy for them to understand and pass the exams. With this we can have more certified drivers on the road,” he said.
Collaboration with GIFEC
The DVLA is also collaborating with Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communication (GIFEC) to expand the licensing processes and to cut down on delivery time.
GIFEC currently has over 200 offices nationwide most in the districts and villages where DVLA has no offices.
Kwasi Agyeman Busia says the DVLA will leverage on these offices to bring license acquisition to the doorstep of everyone.
“it’s an ICT centre, we are talking to them to leverage those places they have so that people can go there for driver licensing and mop up things that they need to do in our services,” he said.
The DVLA will also soon provide special identification to trailers and big vehicles in a bid to easily identify persons or group responsible for accidents caused by parked trailers on the road.
Read Full Story
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Google+
YouTube
LinkedIn
RSS