THE Drivers and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) bagged three awards at the ninth Ghana Information Technology and Telecom Awards (GITTA) held in Accra last Friday.
They are the Best Use of ICT in Public Sector and Best Government Website while its Chief Executive Officer, Mr Kwasi Agyeman Busia was adjudged the Public Sector IT Man of the year.
This brings to seven the number of awards the authority has received from GITTA and 16 from various award schemes in the country, over the last two years.
At last year’s GITTA, it swept four awards including Best government website; Silver and ICT service delivery and information award, while Mr Busia took home the Public Sector IT Man of the Year.
The annual event, which rewards individuals and institutions in the ICT and telecom sector was organised by Instinct Wave in Accra on the theme “Celebrating Innovation and Excellence in the ICT Sector.”
The Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who was adjudged the Digital Leader of the year at the event, in his keynote address commended the DVLA for being one of the state agencies leveraging ICT to improve service delivery.
He said the Smart Drivers’ Licence and Smart Vehicle Registration Card, launched by himself last year, had helped reduce the stress in obtaining licenses and gotten rid of middle men (goro boys) who were duping people.
Dr Bawumia announced that in the coming months, the authority would take the use of IT to a step further, by introducing an integrated database of DVLA and national motor insurance records, to enable law enforcement agencies to easily check uninsured vehicles and fake registration documents.
“It will be bad news for people who do not pay vehicle insurance .The police can just put in your car number through a particular code and they will know if the car is insured or not,” he said.
In an interview, Mr Busia expressed gratitude to the Ministry of Transport, the Board, Management and staff of DVLA for the collective contribution towards improving the services and management of DVLA.
He said he would continue to pursue his vision of service optimisation, financial autonomy and sustainability, customer focus, human capital development, research, business development and innovation.
More than 60 awards were grabbed by individuals and institutions at the ceremony including MTN, Vodafone, Airtel Tigo, GCNET and National Communication Authority.
BY JONATHAN DONKOR
