The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) now risks losing millions over the slow uptake in the collection of driving licences by applicants.
Auditor General Nancy Gathungu, in her report for the year ended June 2024, revealed that 572,674 driving license cards valued at Ksh176,269,057 were still in the custody of the Authority, depicting a worrying trend in the collection of the crucial documents.
She noted that NTSA remained with 572,674 uncollected cards after returning about 1,750,000 сагds to the supplier to reduce un-invoiced stock earlier delivered.
According to Gathungu, NTSA entered into an agreement with the National Bank of Kenya for the production, delivery and maintenance of over 5 million second-generation smart card-based driving licences.
In the agreement signed between stakeholders from both parastatals, National Bank was to undertake the work for Ksh2 billion beginning March 2017.
However, a review of the project status as at June 30, only 33 per cent of total contracted cards had so far been printed, an indication of very low performance.
"The uptake for the cards is still low, and management did not demonstrate efforts to improve the situation. In the circumstances, the confirmation," said Gathungu.
"The audit was conducted per ISSAI 3000 and ISSAI 4000. The standards require that I comply with ethical requirements and plan and реperform the audit to obtain assurance about whether the activities, financial transactions and information," she added.
This is not the first time the Auditor General has raised concerns over uncollected documents at NTSA offices, including a high stock of uncollected number plates, logbooks and smart driving licences.
In a similar report last year, Gathungu criticised NTSA for failing to deliver over 20,000 number plates, 17,474 logbooks and 5,753 smart drivers’ licenses to respective applicants.
She revealed that among the uncollected stocks were expired drivers’ licenses, while some logbooks had been in the Authority’s custody for over five years.
Despite the Auditor General's damning report, NTSA officials are yet to respond to the allegations despite calls by a section of motorists for the Authority's Director General, George Njao, to resign.
