In South Africa, 26 out of every 100,000 people die on the roads – far higher than the global average of 18 per 100,000. Whilst this may be a horrifying statistic how can this be changed when vehicles are not road-worthy or drivers are legally licensed.
Recently the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport (a significant province in South Africa) has concluded an investigation into the corruption at its Drivers Licence Testing Centres (DLTC) – revealing major fraud and corruption by its own employees and external criminals.
The report found that there were not sufficient controls in place to ensure that fraud and corruption are identified or deterred by the current systems in place.
Over 900 lifestyle audits were conducted on department officials and some officials were found to be running their own driving schools along with working at the centres.
Wayne Duvenage, the CEO of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) said that fraud and corruption not only lead to the theft of public funds but also opened the country up to serious road safety risks. He added that people whose cars were not safe for roads were getting approved for road worthy regardless, and eye-checks often fall to the wayside when systems are down.
When asked how the corporate world could protect against such horrific corruption levels Sonya Skipp of iFacts said that her only advice was for companies to verify drivers’ licenses and consider integrity assessments that measure a driver’s aptitude and integrity. Skipp said that the sad reality of crime and corruption in South Africa should drive companies to do their utmost to protect their assets and verification of data was an essential element in doing this.