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Improving Public Service – Licence Revenue Office (LRO)

Sep 19, 2008 Peeping Tom

Peter R. Ramsaroop, MBA

INTRODUCTION
There is a great need for a total revamping of the Licence Revenue Office (LRO) in relation to the issuing of driver’s licence and obtaining of licence plates for vehicle registration. What we need is a more rational and systemic way of issuing a driver a licence and the storing and retrieving of that information that is attached to the licence.
The ease of access to this data will be a deterrent for criminals. This information will include but not be limited to, owner’s information, description of car, insurance information and prior accidents and violations and or incidents attached to that vehicle.
It pains my heart to see every time there is crime committed in this country, and we have a description of a vehicle, we can’t seem to find that vehicle. We need to start using the excess VAT money we have in the Government Bank to improve the system. This is just one example of needed improvement.

TECHNOLOGICAL IMPROVEMENTS
An automated motor vehicle and licencing system would serve us the citizens’ well. There will be an extensive database of all drivers, vehicles and accidents. The creation of an all-points bulletin system, picture IDs that can be verified in the streets.  A system like this will make police at roadblocks more effective in their search for suspects and the wanted. They can then verify someone’s identity, if their licence is suspended, or if they even had a licence in the first place. In terms of security, information would be readily available at the fingertips of the police to conduct investigations. Police will not have to wait until the LRO opens to get any information on a driver or a vehicle and via computer networks will have access to information 24 hours a day.
A system of this magnitude can also help the Guyana Police Force with an added source of revenue from a technological ticket-writing system, which can complement the radar guns they already have.
The backbone of these types of systems thrives on data. In the present state if I am given a ticket and never pay that citation or show up in court to answer to the citation most times, it will fall through all the cracks in the system. In order to effectively manage a citation/ticket-writing based system, information must be available to police and the courts. If I am stopped by the police for any reason, they must be able to check to see if I have any prior violations and see if I paid those violations.
COST
A system like this can practically pay for itself. For example, we have far over 100,000 licence holders and over 150,000 vehicles that must register and or have fitness every year. If 150,000 thousand vehicles are registered every year and 50,000 persons either renew or get a new licence, and we add a mere US$2 ($400 Guyana) to the charge for both, we would be able to collect in revenue close to US$400,000 a year, that can practically pay for such a system.  Another way for paying for this system is to use the excess VAT money that is in the Government Bank, instead of taxing us the citizens.  Government already takes over half of our pay.
CONCLUSION
An automated Licence Revenue Office could act as the backbone for a security infrastructure. The counterfeiting of licences will be made a Herculean task due to the security features that a card-based licence will carry. The paper version of the licence that we have can be produced in any bottom-house lab with a good printer and software. It is an embarrassment to know that certain business entities in this country have stopped accepting the Guyana driver’s licence, due to the perception that it is not a valid document for identification anymore.
Let us not wait until the next techno revolution comes and passes us by, let us implement a systemic and automated way of obtaining a driver’s licence so that the police can have a hand on security and traffic matters.
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