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Facilitators of fraudulent driver’s licences to be fired this month – Ali
(Kaieteur News) – President Irfaan Ali announced Tuesday that officials who helped persons to access driver’s licences without completing the necessary requirement may find themselves out of a job this month.
During an online interview, the president relayed that an audit was conducted at the Guyana Revenue Authority which revealed some shocking data.
“Now look at the licence…early in January, you will see a lot of people being sent home. We have just completed examining the records of all the license issued at GRA verses how many persons pass the theoretical test and how many pass the practical test and I can tell you the results is alarming because you can’t go on to the practical if you don’t pass theory.”
President Irfaan Ali
He explained that the government was able to obtain this data because of the digitised examinations. The theoretical examinations are now being done electronically and the results are being issues the same way, reducing the human bias.
“We must never have the type of situation that robs this country of hundreds of billions of dollars of revenue. So, we’re building everything on systems driven by technology on a digital backbone to improve efficiency, enhance accountability and improve transparency,” he added.
In early December, the president had warned that drivers who obtained licenses without completing the required theoretical or practical exams will be charged and have those licences suspended if they fail to turn in the fraudulent documents within six weeks.
The president had said his government’s increasing integration with technology played a key role in uncovering discrepancies in the licensing process. He explained that post-audits, facilitated by technology, had revealed significant irregularities, particularly with drivers obtaining licenses without completing the necessary exams.
“Technology is your friend,” the president said, noting that it enables the government to recheck the entire system, adding a layer of accountability. He stressed that the government is now able to cross-check data, identifying individuals who passed the theoretical exam but did not take the practical exam, and vice versa.
“We can tell all those who wrote the theoretical exam and pass and that is the only way you can move forward with the practical exam, and we can tell all those who got a practical certificate and all those who actually got a licence with GRA, so we were able to triangulate the entire process and we understand the discrepancies within the whole process,” he said.
The president noted that the number of drivers who completed their theoretical and practical exam is less than drivers who have licences. “If you have 150 people passing the theory but you have 400 people getting their practical certificate, something is wrong. And we are going to make those findings available,” President Ali said.
In efforts to rectify this, the government plans to publish the names of these individuals in local newspapers. Those affected will have six weeks to come forward and complete the necessary steps to regain their valid licenses. After this period, those who fail to comply will have their licences suspended and face prosecution.
“We have all the names of persons who got their practical paper but never passed the theoretical exam and we are going to give those persons in the public domain six weeks to surrender themselves and go through back the process or after that we are going to publish all the names in the newspaper, suspend their licence and prosecute them. That is the only way we can beat this corruption. We have to prosecute all parties involved,” the president declared.
He added, “GRA would have given more licence than practical and theoretical passes, so we are now triangulating the entire process and we have all the date and information before us. Technology and the use of technology will be deployed at full scale and that is what we are doing.”
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