News / National
Corruption crippling VID
14 Jul 2015 at 21:06hrs | Views
The Vehicle Inspection Department says it is facing serious challenges from undercapitalisation and a manual system that is making it difficult to minimise corrupt tendencies among its officials.
VID chief vehicle inspector Mr Johanes Pedzapasi said told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Infrastructure Development that the department generates approximately $2 million each month which all goes to the fiscus leaving it with little to maintain its operations.
The department generates its revenue from activities that include conducting learner license tests, road tests for the driver's licenses, vehicle inspection and the inspection of maintenance facilities to certify their competence.
"The challenge is that all that money goes to the fiscus and we don't get it back to support those operations. The impact of that inability to access revenue is that operational efficiency is compromised. We are not able to replace our ageing equipment, improve our infrastructure, we are not able to expand in terms of areas where we see potential," he said. "We would be comfortable with a scenario where perhaps we can at least be able to retain our revenue like what the police are doing and if we can do that we would be able to recapitalise our inspectorate."
He said there are 23 VID centres across the country currently but they would like to expand to 45 if they get the funds budgeted for expansion from Treasury.
Mr Pedzapasi said automation would be the best solution to most challenges his department is facing.
He said the manual system currently used has made it difficult to inspect vehicles in line with best practice and has also resulted in people getting their driver's license discs more than six months after passing the road test.
He also said the department is inspecting about 400 000 private vehicles, which is only half of the total number of registered private vehicles in the country.
Mr Pedzapasi added that an automated system would help the department fight corruption which has bedeviled the department for years.
"An automated or semi-automated system will reduce the human interface and be able to weed out some of the corrupt tendencies," he said.
He said VID has put in place a ten-point plan to curb corruption which includes monitoring the performance of the 23 depots and looking at how each one fares compared to a smaller or bigger sized depot.
He said the department has fired about 20 employees who have been linked to corruption since 2009 and the cases were referred to the police who carry out their own investigations before deciding to arrest the offenders.
VID chief vehicle inspector Mr Johanes Pedzapasi said told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Infrastructure Development that the department generates approximately $2 million each month which all goes to the fiscus leaving it with little to maintain its operations.
The department generates its revenue from activities that include conducting learner license tests, road tests for the driver's licenses, vehicle inspection and the inspection of maintenance facilities to certify their competence.
"The challenge is that all that money goes to the fiscus and we don't get it back to support those operations. The impact of that inability to access revenue is that operational efficiency is compromised. We are not able to replace our ageing equipment, improve our infrastructure, we are not able to expand in terms of areas where we see potential," he said. "We would be comfortable with a scenario where perhaps we can at least be able to retain our revenue like what the police are doing and if we can do that we would be able to recapitalise our inspectorate."
He said there are 23 VID centres across the country currently but they would like to expand to 45 if they get the funds budgeted for expansion from Treasury.
Mr Pedzapasi said automation would be the best solution to most challenges his department is facing.
He also said the department is inspecting about 400 000 private vehicles, which is only half of the total number of registered private vehicles in the country.
Mr Pedzapasi added that an automated system would help the department fight corruption which has bedeviled the department for years.
"An automated or semi-automated system will reduce the human interface and be able to weed out some of the corrupt tendencies," he said.
He said VID has put in place a ten-point plan to curb corruption which includes monitoring the performance of the 23 depots and looking at how each one fares compared to a smaller or bigger sized depot.
He said the department has fired about 20 employees who have been linked to corruption since 2009 and the cases were referred to the police who carry out their own investigations before deciding to arrest the offenders.
Source - bh24
