A tense exchange erupted in Parliament on Monday between the Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Abena Osei Asare, and the Chief Executive of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), Julius Neequaye Kotey, during discussions on the Authority’s upcoming digital number plate project.
The disagreement arose after the PAC Chair raised concerns about privacy and data protection under the DVLA’s new digitisation initiative. The Authority plans to introduce number plates embedded with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips, a system Mr. Kotey said would strengthen vehicle security and reduce crimes involving fake registrations.
Explaining the concept, Mr. Kotey told the committee that the RFID-enabled plates would make it “very difficult for external entities to tamper with or replicate” vehicle information.
However, Mrs. Osei Asare pressed for clarity on the type of personal data that would appear on the plates, particularly whether vehicle owners’ surnames would be visible.
“Because in putting out somebody’s security out there, a bad person can also get hold of that,” she cautioned, urging the DVLA to clarify how the system protects private information.
In response, the DVLA boss assured the committee that the system would adhere to Ghana’s Data Protection Law, adding that the digitisation process “will digitalise existing information without altering the basic format.”
When asked directly if names would appear on the plates, Mr. Kotey said, “It depends on what the law says; we’ll go by it.”
That remark drew an immediate reaction from the PAC Chair.
“You don’t tell me it depends on what the law says. You are doing it. So you should be able to tell us that the law says ABCD. I’m asking a specific question: is it going to have the user’s surname on the number plate?”
Mr. Kotey later clarified that “we don’t put names on number plates,” but Mrs. Osei Asare challenged the claim, noting that some personalised plates already feature names.
“People pay to have their names on number plates, and you sit here as the DVLA boss to tell me you don’t put names on number plates? That’s not accurate,” she countered.
The exchange briefly grew tense before Mr. Kotey explained that he was referring to standard plates, not personalised ones. Mrs. Osei Asare accepted the clarification but maintained that the committee’s scrutiny stemmed from public interest and the need for transparency in the digital number plate rollout.
She concluded that the PAC would continue to demand detailed accountability from the DVLA on both the procurement process and the data security framework guiding the new system.
Source: Adomonline
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