Fear of public anger forced gov’t to renew ‘worst-ever’ DVLA contract

A former DVLA Chief Executive is claiming that public anger over the delays in printing driver’s licences forced government into renewing a deal described as fraudulent.

The former Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority boss, Justice Amegashie told Parliament’s Select Committee on Transport that the then Transport Minister Collins Dauda okayed the deal with Foto-X in August 2012.

The renewal of the Foto-X contract has come under scrutiny after Joy News investigations revealed that although the deal was supposed to be $3.6million, it jumped to $9.9million courtesy a decision of the DVLA Management.

Three former DVLA Chief Executives, Joe Osei Owusu, Justice Amegashie and Rudolph Buckley are helping Parliament to unravel the mysterious jump in the figure which Foto-X has blamed on a typographical error.

A former DVLA Chief Executive Joe Owusu, an MP and member of the Committee on Transport also wants to know why the contract with Foto-X was renewed when although it was agreed the operations of the company will be transferred to DVLA was the contract had ended.

Justice Amegashie suggested that nobody was in a position to take over Foto-X’s operations. Moreover, there was intense public pressure on DVLA to issue drivers’ licences.

Justice Amegashie who approved the deal said the DVLA had a backlog of more than 200,000 licences that needed to be cleared hence the haste to renew the contract.

A Director of Licensing at DVLA also told the committee, the contract with Foto-X was the “worst-ever” deal signed by the DVLA.

He said the company’s performance in the first contract that run from 2006 to 2012 was unsatisfactory. According to him, Foto-X rejected plans to meet weekly to review the implementation of agreements under the contract.

Foto-X has received some GHC 4.37million between 2014 and 2016, immediate former DVLA boss Rudolph Buckley also told the committee.

The Attorney-General’s Department has since authorized the contract be cancelled after Joy News’ Kwetey Nartey broke the news November 3, 2015.

The financial aspects of the deal have especially been under scrutiny.

The DVLA Board which only approved the sum of $3.6million and had no knowledge the sum had almost tripled, expressed shock when the figure became public.