The Sunday News
AN alarming number of people continue to fail leaner’s driving licence and practical road tests, amid claims that officials at the Vehicle Inspectorate Department (VID) deliberately fail people to induce bribes.
Official figures obtained from VID show that about 60 percent of people who sit for leaner’s licence tests fail, while over 70 percent fail road tests to get driver’s licences. The VID has however, denied claims of corruption at the insitution.
A Harare-based organisation, Road Rules, in its recent survey showed a 75 percent failure rate in leaner’s licence tests. However, according to official figures, last year 247 013 people wrote leaner’s licence tests countrywide and only 98 805 passed, translating to a 60 percent failure rate. Of the 206 941 people who undertook practical road tests last year, only 55 874 (27 percent) were successful, translating to a 73 percent failure rate.
Chief Vehicle Inspector in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development Mr Johannes Pedzapasi said the high failure rate, which he said fluctuates yearly, was a result of people coming for the tests ill prepared.
Mr Pedzapasi dismissed claims that the high failure rates were deliberate as VID officials force bribes out of desperate members of the public. He said a majority of people who come for road tests, about 58 percent, fail at the four tasks required of them inside the VID yard.
“A lot of people who come for road tests fail at the drums, parallel parking, three-point-turn and the hill start. These tasks are done in full view of everyone such that there is very little room if any of our officials deliberately failing people. People come for these road tests ill-prepared. It could be that driving schools are not doing their work and sometimes people just don’t prepare themselves enough,” he said.
On the Road Rule survey findings, Mr Pedzapasi said: “I don’t know where they got those figures. They are not accurate. Our pass rate for the learners drivers’ licence tests fluctuate between 40 and 60 percent.”
Sources at VID told Sunday News that officials were taking advantage of ignorant members of the public who did not know how the system works, failing them even when they would have ticked the correct answers.
Procedurally, a person is supposed to witness their answer sheet being marked, but few people claim that right, leaving room for VID officials to allegedly manipulate the outcome of the examinations.
The sources said the failure rates were higher at some VID depots where corruption is high, with officials at those depots living lives that are incommensurate with their salaries.
“For example in one depot over 200 people write learner’s tests daily but only 35 or so pass. Most of those who pass would have bribed the VID officials. So you find that the failure rate at this centre may be higher than in other areas. If you look at the kind of cars most of the officials at VID are driving and check against what they earn you will be surprised,” said the source.
Mr Pedzapasi conceded that VID was at some point riddled with corruption, prompting the parent ministry to tighten screws, a move that saw a number of officials being fired. In 2010 about 22 VID officials were fired countrywide for corruptly issuing driver’s licences. The VID boss said the figures of VID officials fired on corruption charges were going down each year, as efforts to contain corruption were bearing fruits.
“If you have been following developments at VID you would know that at some point we had the highest turnover of employees in Government. We fired quite a number of people due to corruption and we will continue to fire if we catch anyone.
“The figures have been going down sharply over the past years and last year we only fired three while this year only four have been fired so far. We have tightened screws and our intolerance to corruption has been paying off,” he said.
In 2010, Government cancelled 199 driver’s licences issued by the Chiredzi VID depot between January and June 2009 as part of measures to stamp out corruption. Learner drivers continue being squeezed of extra money by VID officials to get learner’s drivers’ licence and certificates of competence.
