DVLA for Sale

...although generating 100 billion yearly income
“We for sell-sell something! Sell-sell everything! Sell-sell something!” Seems to be the government’s remix of a popular Ghanaian Hiplife song by Praye, as it continues to dispose off national asserts and institutions with impunity. The latest government institution being offered for sale is the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) of the Ministry of Road Transport, which generates over ¢100 billion into the Consolidated Fund annually.

Documents available to The Enquirer from the vault of the authority reveal that the vehicle testing section of the authority has already been secretly privatized. The management, after clandestinely privatizing the vehicle testing section, called a meeting on October 7, this year to inform the workers of the move, drawing disquiet from the workers, as they listened to their new role under the sale.

The meeting was convened by the Acting Chief Executive of the authority, Mrs Mabel Sagoe. The situation has been described by a top management person as bogus and fraudulent, saying that th workers and the public, who are major stakeholders, should have been involved in the privatization process.

“The DVLA does not need privatization of any kind but rather a well tailored decentralizations to generate more revenue as well as the creation of employment,”.

Investigations by the Enquirer has it that, similar deal was done four ago, by DVLA when one Mr Oppong, a man who used to drive a rickety Opel saloon car but now cruises in a VW Toureg was handpicked and given the section dealing with the testing of headlights at the DVLA. The headlight testing is done at the premises of the DVLA while the gh¢2.00 per every inspection goes to this private man, who has made so much money and has established a multi billion garage.

It was also gathered that Mr Oppong is now gunning for the roadworthy section of the DVLA and has established a new garage at Dome in Accra, while another one, by an unknown person, has been established at Kuntunse on the Nsawam road.

Inside sources at the DVLA told the Enquirer that most of the workers will be assigned a new role as auditors to these private companies, while others will simply lose their jobs. They told newsmen that some people outside the authority have been sent outside to be trained to take over that work.

The move has incurred the wrath of the workers because they claim that the DVLA is currently doing well and that there is no need for any privatization. The sources said that the DVLA pays close to ¢100 billion (old Ghana cedis) into the consolidated fund. But as things stand now the figure is likely to go down because of the privatization.