More than 10,000 driver’ licenses are said to be locked up at the Accra, and Tema offices of Ghana’s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) as a result of breakdown of printing equipment.
This has generated confusion between drivers and officials of the DVLA. Some of the drivers who are frustrated over the authority’s failure to issue them with license cards threatened to sue the authority for reneging on its promise.
African Eye News who visited the two offices saw thousands of license applicants who had come to collect their driver’s license. But most of them left disappointed.
A spokesperson of the irate drivers, Nii Lamptey said: “For some months now, persons who visit the DVLA’s offices in Accra and Tema to get new cards or renew expired ones have been left disappointed. They are only issued temporary licenses, printed on sheets of paper”.
For security reasons, the printing of cards is centralized at the DVLA’s head office. Since February, the Tema office has not received any new cards, and the Accra office since May.
Officials of the DVLA, said they used to have eight printing equipment, but they have broken down, only two are functioning now, hence the problem.
Officials at the Tema office said that they had submitted data of more than 10,000 licensing applicants who have come to collect their ID cards, but are in backlog.
Infact, since February, the Tema office had not received any cards from headquarters to distribute to their customers. They have written a lot of reports to the head office complaining about that but to no avail.
The DVLA Boss, Noah Martey said the cards have been in backlog since May. He also attributed the situation to networking problems, and the equipment breakdown.
The paper issued to a driver cleared to receive a fresh license or have his old license renewed has a life span of three months, after which his license in the form of an identity card is issued. But these drivers complain they have been using the temporal cards for about one year.
Some of the drivers said they usually have problems with the police arresting them for using the temporal ID cards. Because the police don’t understand why it has been extended, they explained. Others say they want to use the card for other documentation processes, because it is supposed to be an ID card, but without the permanent one, you can’t use it because it is just on a sheet of paper, Lamptey stated.
