The Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) says the institution under the current leadership has transformed the image of the Authority significantly since they took over the helm of affairs in 2017.

According to Prince Opoku Edusei, the Authority under the previous administration was branded as the ‘most corrupt’ public institution in the country.

This, he said, was unworthy of such an establishment set up to provide an essential service to the citizenry, hence, immediate steps had to be taken to change the status quo.

"The DVLA of old was plagued with a lot of problems. In 2017, when we took over, you would only recognise DVLA by three words; ‘goro’, corruption and extortion’.

“So the Authority set out to do six things having been confronted with such situation form the onset, I acknowledge that the previous administration had tried to turn around the fortunes of the Authority, but perhaps we needed to put in more verbs and also redirect our focus,” he said at the second edition of the Ministry for Monitoring and Evaluation Results Fair on Tuesday.

Highlighting the six pillars adopted by the new administration, Mr Edusei mentioned; uplifting image, first-class service provision, financial autonomy, training of staff, customer-focused, research and analysis.

Instituting these new pillars, he stressed, changed the course of the Authority, thereby, changing the notorious reputation that had hitherto characterized the establishment.

“We needed to make sure that the public sees us as a friendly organisation and not that corrupt institution that we were tagged with. And so we set out to ensure service optimisation.”

For financial autonomy and sustainability, the Deputy CEO observed that due to “a lot of revenue leakages” under the previous administration, there was always a gap in sustaining operations.

Hence, the new leadership of the Authority sought an affordable but effective method to provide its services.

Mr Edusei also noted that government’s digitisation agenda has also played a key role in the DVLA's transformation process.

According to him, the initiative which is being spearheaded by Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has introduced accountability and transparency.

"We have invested in a lot of technology, we have reengineered our process, we have worked on our people to ensure that they deliver on these services as promised.

“So I would say that driven by technology and research, a change in attitude and focusing on customer service and ensuring that we continuously train our staff we have come this far,” he said.