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Heads to roll at VID

by Staff reporter
21 Jun 2019 at 07:18hrs | Views
ACTION is going to be taken against Vehicle Inspection Department (VID) officials who are corruptly issuing learner driver's licences to underserving people and modalities are being worked out to computerise the issuance of driving documents at all VID depots, Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Joel Biggie Matiza has said.

This comes in the wake of an undercover exposure by our Harare Bureau of deep-rooted corruption in the issuance of the learner driver's licences at the VID Marondera depot this week.

The journalist working on an investigative story was issued with an authentic learner driver's licence at VID Marondera depot after paying a bribe to the officials at the depot to facilitate acquisition of the document.

After the exposure of corrupt activities at the Marondera depot, Minister Matiza said heads would roll but a sustainable solution lay in computerisation of the process. He said he does not brook corruption in line with President Mnangagwa's vision to transform the economy into an upper middle income status by 2030.

"My stance against corruption is very clear as guided by His Excellency the President ED Mnangagwa," said Minister Matiza.

"Action will definitely be taken against Marondera VID officials who are corruptly issuing learner driver's licences to the public and endangering the safety of the motoring public and pedestrians.

"However, the sustainable solution lies in computerising the whole system as we have already with some of the depots. Our computerised system is so tight proof that there is no human involvement in the testing of all prospective drivers. The computer randomly chooses questions for the learners from a pool of questions loaded in the computer. The learners though sitting for the same test, they don't answer the same questions and the computer automatically does the marking once the learner answers the last question.

"We are on course to ensure that all the VID depots are computerised to ensure that there is no room for such kind of corruption. With this computerised system, all our prospective drivers will be conversant with our traffic rules and regulations and that will go a long way in reducing road accidents. Most of the accidents that we see on our roads are caused by people who got their drivers licences through short cuts and are not well-informed and familiar with our traffic rules and regulations."

Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services said culprits involved in corrupt issuance of licences will be severely punished.

"The Herald story on the licence scam at a VID Depot is horrifying. There are a lot of accidents caused by human error on our roads. Each driver would like to know that the next car is being driven by a person competent to drive. Culprits involved will face full wrath of the law," reads the ministry's post on Twitter.

So far Government had computerised the issuance of learner driver's licence at the VID Eastlea depot in Harare, Chitungwiza and Bulawayo depots which plugged off several loopholes and reduced human involvement in the process.

The high end technological system introduced by Government has seen several people shying away from these depots opting for other centres where the testing is still being done manually.

It is understood that some corrupt elements at the computerised depots are taking bribes from people seeking to get learner driver's licences and then direct them to other manual depots where they had some connections including the Marondera depot.

Minister Matiza advised members of the public against engaging in corrupt activities in the acquisition of learner driver's licences saying the long arm of the law would soon catch up with those members and officials facilitating such illicit activities.  

In line with the computerisation of the learner driving licence, all VID processes are going to be on the online system including vehicle inspection, and road testing will also include a computer though an inspector will still be there.

Source - chronicle