DVLA Boss Exposes NPP MP

The Member of Parliament for Ashanti Bekwai, Joe Osei-Wusu, who was also the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), has been exposed as a blatant liar by the current CEO of the DVLA, Justice Amegashie, who is distancing himself from wrong-doing in the procurement of some expensive machines which are rusting away at the DVLA.

Seven years after the purchase at a very exorbitant price, the machines have been left at the premises of the DVLA in Accra and other parts of the country, uninstalled for vehicle roadworthy examination.

Joe Osei-Wusu is also accused of blowing the taxpayer’s money on building a state of the art DVLA office in his hometown, Ashanti Bekwai, ignoring the headquarters. Even the cost of services he initiated at the headquarters, have left some workers suspicious of a deal.

Two weeks ago, The Herald asked Mr. Osei -Wusu why Climb Lifts, equipment for hoisting vehicles for inspection of their under parts procured during his tenure, were left outside in the open to rust. Osei –Wusu, in his answer, told The Herald that when he was CEO, he took delivery of the equipment, he made sure he put them in a garage.

However, Mr. Amegashie impliedly denied Osei-Wusu’s claim that the machines were kept in a garage at the premises of the DVLA when he directed The Herald to talk to Mr. Vincent Fiati, the Director of the Greater Accra Regional DVLA, on the matter.

Mr.Fiati said before he assumed office in 2008, the machines were outside at the mercy of the weather, and took reporters of The Herald around to verify for themselves whether there were any garages at the DVLA offices where the machines could have been packed.

It was discovered that there were no garages in the premises of the DVLA to house the machines as claimed by Mr. Osei-Wusu, who is also a lawyer by profession.

Last Friday, on Hot FM, an Accra radio station, Osei-Wusu indicted himself by admitting that he took delivery of the expensive machines at the time when there was no base for them to be mounted for use, and, therefore, had to pack them sin a garage.

He conceded that the Climb Lifts had been brought into the country under a World Bank programme called Road Sector Development Programme (RSDP) to equip the DVLA, as far back as 2005.However, the machines are not in use.

Osei-Wusu told Akuoba Gyasi, host of the Hot FM newspaper review programme, “Maakye”, that the machines were four in number as against The Herald’s claim that they were ten.

He admitted his folly, by saying that the machines could not be used because the structures needed for their installation had not been provided, and therefore, they had been lying idle for the past seven years.

The Bekwai MP lied again that all the machines were in good condition, and that they could be used at any time. But The Herald is aware that the machines are not in good condition; some of them had come into the country without some parts such as power hose —something that Osei-Wusu himself disclosed to The Herald earlier on.

On the issue of the licensing and regulation of the private garages to do vehicle inspection, Osei-Wusu said that the DVLA lacked the capacity to acquire the equipment for the work, hence the decision to invite private sector participation where individuals could go in for loans, something that the government would not want to burden itself with. He added and that even the government could not afford £300,000 as fee for training people who would be handling some of the machines.

According to him, some of the equipment could cost about $1.2 million, an amount that the government would not be willing to access, adding that some of the equipment are fragile, and need replacement every five years.

He said stakeholders in the transport sector, Parliament and other people, had had meetings, over involving the private sector in vehicle inspection alongside with the DVLA, at Akosombo where the deal was sealed.

Instead of speaking on the issue of causing financial loss to the state, he insulted journalists at The Herald as illiterates who were not prepared to learn, but quick to inflict their crass ignorance on the public.

However, from The Herald’s observation, a well -educated man like Osei-Wusu, who claims to be a lawyer, and an MP, during his tenure of office as the CEO of DVLA, hardly exercised his imagination and creativity, or employed his education as a tool to enhance the fortunes of the DVLA, and for that matter his country.

Rather, his focus had aggressively been on how to exploit the DVLA for his parochial interest. “Where was Osei-Wusu’s intelligence faculty, when he left a Climb Lift, purchased for thousands of dollars, in the open to rust away?

“People like him see in education an opportunity to exploit the ignorance of their compatriots for their parochial and transient interests, rather than for the far-reaching and lasting impression for the general good,” said a worker at the DVLA, who believes Osei-Wusu came to the DVLA only to make money.

Meanwhile, reports reaching The Herald indicate that following the paper’s exposure of the ineptitude exhibited by Osei-Wusu in abandoning the Climb Lifts in the open unprotected and the wheeling and dealings to strip the DVLA of its viable operations, men suspected to be World Bank officials visited the DVLA to look at the state of the machine, the paper complained of..

Also Mr. Amegashie himself visited the DVLA to inspect the machine. Reporters from the media, including Joy FM, also went to examine the machine.

Collins Dauda has said on Joy FM that he was going to institute a probe into the complaints made by The Herald on the state of affairs at the DVLA. More to come!