The Report on Performance Audit – Licensing and Testing Department has been submitted to the Honourable Speaker for presentation in the House of Representatives in accordance with sub-paragraph 8(b) of the First Schedule of the Auditor General and the National Audit Office Act, 1997.

The Licensing and Testing Department (LTD) was set up in 1993 and took over functions that, till then, were carried out by the Police Department. The Department is responsible for the licensing of local drivers and the registering, testing and licensing of all motor vehicles. As at end 2000, the LTD employed 88 staff. Revenue generated by the Department amounts to over Lm35 million out of which over Lm10 million were in respect of road licences.

This audit focused on the operations and quality of service provided by the Road Licence Renewals Section and the Transfers and Conversions Section. Both Sections contributed towards the maintenance of vehicle records, which facilitate owner and vehicle identification, as well as revenue collection.

The computerisation of the Department, in 1995, marked a significant improvement in vehicle record keeping at LTD. However the change over from manual to electronic records, led to data integrity problems. A survey on the accuracy of data relating to vehicle owner particulars and vehicle features utilized for investigative and enforcement purposes revealed that about 6% of these fields did not reconcile. A significant number of these mismatches related to vehicles registered prior to 1995. The Department has embarked on action to update its records through new data generated through the Vehicle Road Worthiness Test. The integrity of data held by the Department ought to improve after this update has been completed in the near future.

The lack of an enforcement policy on defaulters resulted in an increase in arrears of revenue in respect of road licenses by a further Lm844,685 during 2000 to a total of Lm3,540,743 besides resulting in loss of revenue. Lack of enforcement restricts the Department from establishing reasons regarding defaulters.

Customer-Care is an important element in the provision of any service. An NAO study held in January 2001 revealed that the time spent by Customers in the queue to renew road licences at the Renewals Section counters averaged from 6.3 minutes in mid-month to 51.55 minutes at the end of the month. On average, it takes 30 minutes for a customer to be served. Despite being aware of the trend that the number of customers calling personally to renew road licences near the end of each month stretches counter-clerks to the limit and queuing time is increased considerably, the Department argued that it is not in a position to ameliorate the prevailing situation.

Instances were observed where the Law Courts and Local Councils do not take prompt action to lift road licence renewals restrictions once a pending traffic fine has been settled. This situation poses a hindrance to customers seeking to renew a road licence following the settlement of a traffic fine. Moreover it impinges negatively on the efficiency of LTD operations.

The situation at the Transfers and Conversions Section was considered to be satisfactory. During the days of the NAO study, customer service time, on average, never exceeded thirty minutes.

The report proposes recommendations aimed at enhancing LTD Management’s control of operations and service delivery.