STORY BY IRENE KABUKIE QUA:

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) has registered more than 7,700 excavators and impounded 357 vehicles suspected of customs irregularities as part of efforts to strengthen vehicle verification and enforcement in Ghana.

The Chief Executive of the DVLA, Julius Neequaye Kotey, disclosed this at the Government Accountability Series on Monday, October 12, explaining that the measures were intended to improve the tracking of excavators and prevent vehicles with unpaid customs duties from being registered.

Mr Kotey said the excavator registration exercise was introduced in collaboration with the Minerals Commission to help authorities monitor the movement and activities of excavators brought into the country through ports of entry.

“Over 7,700 excavators have been registered under this very project,” he said, noting that the initiative addressed gaps in the registration and tracking of excavators entering Ghana.

He also revealed that the Authority had acquired on-board diagnostic (OBD) devices to verify vehicle identification numbers and detect cloned vehicles and those suspected of being improperly cleared through customs.

According to him, some importers bring vehicles into the country through unapproved routes and attempt to register them using identification numbers belonging to vehicles for which customs duties have already been paid.

This practice, he explained, can result in duplicate chassis numbers in the DVLA’s database, creating complications for legitimate vehicle owners seeking registration.

Mr Kotey said the introduction of OBD devices had strengthened the Authority’s ability to detect such irregularities and prevent affected vehicles from being registered until the necessary customs duties had been paid.

He added that the DVLA had impounded 357 vehicles and handed them over to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to facilitate the payment of outstanding customs duties.

“Our last record shows that by 10-09-2026, 357 vehicles have been impounded and handed over to the Ghana Revenue Authority to ensure the payment of the required customs duties,” he said.

The measures form part of the DVLA’s broader efforts to improve vehicle registration integrity, strengthen regulatory enforcement and ensure compliance with Ghana’s customs requirements.