Driver’s licence officials audited as Gauteng clamps down on corruption

Bribery, collusion between examiners, fee dumping and eye-test corruption took centre stage in an investigation of Gauteng driver's licence testing centres (DLTCs).

The 2021 investigation, commissioned by the premier's office, was presented by Gauteng MEC for public transport and roads infrastructure Jacob Mamabolo at the Centurion Gautrain centre on Thursday.

“There are no controls in place to identify or deter possible fraud and corruption while examiners conduct the drivers’ tests, especially once they leave the yard to conduct the road test,” says the report.

“In most instances there are no CCTV cameras in place in both the yard and within the DLTCs, especially over the CLLT (computerised learner's licence testing) venue, which can at least be monitored on a sample basis by a party independent to the DLTC to flag potential irregularities.”

To identify corruption, “we conducted lifestyle audits on 912 Gauteng Driver’s Licence Testing Centre officials by taking into account assets owned by, credit commitments and salary information of these officials”.

“Our starting point was officials who had multiple vehicles registered in their names which were also not financed. From this exercise we identified 13 officials whose assets and credit commitments were not commensurate with their salaries.

“Consultations were held with the 13 officials, wherein various explanations were provided for multiple vehicles and properties registered in their names. While some of the officials did indeed confirm having other sources of income, we could not confirm this other income, nor could we ascertain the legality of same.”

“Fee dumping”, where an official transferred ownership to a deceased person's account, then transferred back to the applicant to avoid them paying a fine, was also uncovered. 

The report notes that some corruption was enabled by system weaknesses.

The online booking system effectively took control of booking slots away from the centres. However, it created an opportunity for “runners”, who act as intermediaries, to profit from a system that sought to root out fraud and corruption.

The system introduced a potential revenue stream for these “runners” that was funded by members of the public who struggled to secure a slot online. This may be due to the lack of slots available at the time, no internet access or not being technologically proficient. The intermediaries took advantage of this, charging clients a convenience fee. 

“From a total of 570,617 online bookings analysed, we identified a total of 2,304 mobile numbers that were used to make more than five online bookings during the period, presumably by runners.

“We extracted the top 25 numbers that were identified to be linked to multiple bookings. The top 25 numbers were also subjected to social media searches, which revealed instances where the individuals advertised to offer the services of booking online slots, in exchange for fees ranging between R150 to R200 per booking.

“We further found that the top 25 mobile numbers alone represent 13,158 of the 570,617 online bookings, with the top number being associated with 1,915 online bookings spread across 33 Gauteng centres,.”

When eye-testing machines were down or applicants could not have their eyes tested for whatever reason, they were referred to an optometrist.

“Runners” and other intermediaries had also taken advantage of this and produced fraudulent certificates using the details of registered optometrists. They then sold these to members of the public.

“The centres have no controls on their systems to verify that the certificate is valid and indeed issued by a registered optometrist in good standing with the Health Professions Council.”

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