The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) is set to intensify road enforcement operations to remove unroadworthy vehicles from Ghana’s roads.
The DVLA Chief Executive Officer, Julius Neequaye Kotey, said the move had become necessary amid growing concerns over the dangers posed by vehicles that do not meet required road safety standards.
Speaking on TV3’s Hot Issues on Sunday, August 16, Mr Kotey disclosed that DVLA compliance officers would return to the roads from next week and would no longer operate only on selected days.
He said the enforcement exercise would be conducted every day as the Authority seeks to ensure that vehicles operating on the country’s roads comply with safety and regulatory requirements.
“Now that we are all seeing the bad effects of cars that are not roadworthy being on our roads, I think the public will be in support when we start taking them off our roads,” he said.
“Next week, our compliance guys are going to be on our roads, and it is not going to be the two-day norm; every day they will be on our roads,” he added.
The compliance teams will focus on several issues, including vehicle window tints, tyre conditions and brake pads.
The teams will also deploy available technology to identify vehicles suspected to be cloned, as well as vehicles that have not paid the required duties but are being used on Ghanaian roads.
PVTS Under Watch
The DVLA CEO further warned Private Vehicle Testing Stations (PVTS) that issue roadworthiness certificates to vehicles that do not meet the required safety standards.
He said where a vehicle was found on the road to be unfit despite having obtained a valid roadworthiness certificate, the DVLA would trace the testing station responsible for the certification and investigate.
“If there are PVTS that have issued roadworthy to cars and we see the cars and they are not cars that are good to be on our roads, we will investigate and know which PVTS, and we will close it down,” he stated.
He described the closure of non-compliant testing stations as one of the options available to the Authority to protect road users and enforce safety standards.
Mr Kotey also appealed to the public to support the DVLA compliance team as it begins the intensified enforcement exercise.
“Support the DVLA compliance team to put these cars off our roads,” he urged.
The renewed enforcement forms part of broader efforts by the DVLA to improve compliance with vehicle safety standards and reduce the risks posed by unroadworthy vehicles on Ghana’s roads.
