1600 persons under probe in crackdown on illegal driver’s licences

As part of efforts to crack down on illegally obtained drivers licences, the Guyana Police Force’s Traffic Department has written to some 1600 persons to ascertain how they obtained their licences.

“The Traffic Chief [Mahendra Singh] would have sent out 1600 letters to persons whom they’re interested in to find out how they acquired their driver’s licences… And this will be interesting,” President Dr Irfaan Ali revealed during a press conference on Friday.

This move comes on the heels of the head of states previously announcing back in December a six-week deadline for persons who illegally obtained their drivers’ licences to turn themselves in and be given a chance to redo their licences; otherwise, they would face a suspension of their licences and possible prosecution.

Traffic Chief Singh told this publication on Friday that, as far as he is aware, no one took advantage of that amnesty period. “No licences would have been submitted to us or surrendered to us or brought in at Traffic Headquarters,” he noted.

While the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) is the official licensing agency, the Traffic Chief further indicated that he was not informed of any such submissions there.
This crackdown on the licensing process followed a comprehensive post-audit conducted by the Government in collaboration with the GRA, the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the Ministry of Public Service, Government Efficiency and Implementation.

The audit, powered by integrated digital systems, exposed serious discrepancies in the driver’s licencing process, specifically, cases where individuals obtained practical certifications and licences without ever passing the mandatory theoretical examination.

“If 150 people pass the theory but 400 receive practical certificates, something is wrong,” the President had stated last December. “Technology has allowed us to trace every step, and we have all the names.”

During an interview with a panel of local journalists at the time, the Guyanese leader had warned that all parties involved in the irregularities would face the consequences.

Automated exams

Moreover, the Government is also looking to migrate the theoretical examination for drivers’ licences from the Police Force to the Guyana Digital School, where the questions would be automatically generated.

According to President Ali on Friday, “Nobody would have any question paper two days before. [With the automated system], if you go now to write it, 10 minutes after, the questions are completely different. It’s random sampling. The system throws up the questions and marks them immediately, so you can know your results there.”

This new process aligns with ongoing efforts to enhance road safety across the country through smart traffic interventions, including artificial intelligence (AI) traffic cameras, radar systems, and smart traffic signals, among others that are slated to be rolled out across the country within the next year.

With AI being an important component of Guyana’s national security operations, the head of state noted that this is already bearing fruits.

“We have launched the smart traffic cameras, and we have seen a massive reduction in accidents and speeding in the areas where we have launched the cameras. Now, we went a step further. AI can now generate for us who the repeat offenders in traffic offences are, so you don’t need to go through days of documents. In milliseconds, we can generate a report about repeat offenders so that that can be integrated in the judicial system, and the judicial system can take the appropriate action based on the repeat offenders,” he noted.

Additionally, President Ali disclosed that they are on the verge of introducing our mobile units that will be deployed on the road and automatically detect vehicles with outstanding traffic offences, and they would be pulled over. In fact, he noted that several pilot tests were successfully completed with this new unit.

“The test a few nights ago, on the East Coast alone, found 250-plus vehicles with outstanding tickets, just by driving through. And no human can interfere with the system, because the system would pick them up, document it on a screen, put it in a database, and then turn on even the sirens to stop the vehicle.”

“This mobile unit can also be parked in any location, and it’ll have 360 degrees of coverage of the traffic in that location to look at offences. This is some of the latest technology that we are applying. We are now going to move this at scale to national levels,” he noted.

Moreover, the Guyanese leader also spoke about integrating sensor-enabled infrastructure into the intelligent traffic system in order to streamline the use of the road. For instance, sensor-orientated traffic lights would be installed across Georgetown and would operate based on real-time traffic situations.

“The timing of the lights will change to allow efficiency in the system… You know, sometimes the traffic is going out of the city, sometimes in the city, so the sensors will pick this up in a predictable way and then make the decisions and adjustments within the system itself,” the President explained.