The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) may soon suffer massive financial losses due to the slow rate at which applicants are picking up their smart driving licenses, according to a new audit report.
Auditor General Nancy Gathungu, in her findings for the financial year ending June 2024, raised serious concerns after it was revealed that a staggering 572,674 smart driving licence cards, worth Ksh176.2 million, were still lying uncollected at NTSA offices.
This large volume of idle cards paints a troubling picture of public disinterest or inefficiency in the collection process of these critical documents.
To address the surplus, NTSA had previously returned 1.75 million unused cards to the supplier in an attempt to reduce the growing inventory of stock that hadn’t yet been invoiced or distributed. However, this move has done little to resolve the underlying issue of low collection rates.
Gathungu explained that NTSA had signed a contract with the National Bank of Kenya (NBK) for the production, distribution, and management of over five million second-generation smart driving licences, beginning in March 2017. The deal, valued at Ksh2 billion, was expected to modernize the driving licence system across the country.
Despite the ambitious plan, the audit found that by June 30, 2024, only 33 percent of the total targeted licences had actually been printed. This means a significant portion of the contract remains unfulfilled, raising questions about the project’s effectiveness and NTSA’s project management capacity.
“The uptake for the smart cards remains low,” Gathungu observed. “And NTSA management has not shown adequate effort to boost collection or create awareness about the new licences. That lack of initiative is worrying.”
The Auditor General emphasized that her review was conducted following ISSAI 3000 and ISSAI 4000 auditing standards, which require auditors to follow ethical guidelines, thoroughly plan audits, and verify whether institutions are managing resources and operations appropriately.
This isn’t the first time NTSA has come under scrutiny. In a previous audit report, Gathungu also flagged high volumes of uncollected items, including over 20,000 number plates, 17,474 logbooks, and 5,753 smart driving licences.
Shockingly, some of these documents had been sitting idle at NTSA premises for more than five years, while others—like some of the driving licences—had even expired before being collected.
Motorists and concerned citizens are now demanding accountability. Some have even called for the resignation of NTSA Director General George Njao, accusing the Authority of failing to address long-standing inefficiencies and mismanagement. However, as of now, NTSA is yet to issue a formal response to the Auditor General’s damning report.
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