The Chairperson of Parliament\u2019s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Abena Osei Asare, and the Chief Executive of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), Julius Neequaye Kotey, were involved in a heated exchange during Monday\u2019s committee sitting over the planned rollout of digital vehicle number plates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The confrontation stemmed from concerns raised by the PAC Chair about privacy and data protection under the DVLA\u2019s new digitisation initiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Authority is introducing number plates embedded with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips, which Mr. Kotey said would enhance security and curb vehicle-related crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Explaining the concept to the committee, Mr. Kotey noted that the RFID-enabled plates would make it \u201cvery difficult for external entities to tamper with or replicate\u201d vehicle information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Mrs. Osei Asare questioned the potential exposure of private information, particularly regarding whether vehicle owners\u2019 surnames would be displayed on the new plates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBecause in putting out somebody\u2019s security out there, a bad person can also get hold of that,\u201d she said, demanding clarity on the specific data elements that would appear on the plates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his response, the DVLA boss assured the committee that the system would comply with Ghana\u2019s Data Protection Law, stressing that the digitalisation process \u201cwill digitalise existing information without altering the basic format.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pressed further on whether names would appear, Mr. Kotey replied, \u201cIt depends on what the law says; we\u2019ll go by it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That answer drew an immediate rebuke from the PAC Chair, who interjected sharply: \u201cYou don\u2019t 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\u2019m asking a specific question: is it going to have the user\u2019s surname on the number plate?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr. Kotey then clarified that \u201cwe don\u2019t put names on number plates,\u201d but the Chair quickly countered, citing examples of personalised plates already in circulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPeople pay to have their names on number plates, and you sit here as the DVLA boss to tell me you don\u2019t put names on number plates? That\u2019s not accurate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The exchange momentarily grew tense when the DVLA chief appeared to dismiss the relevance of her question. He later withdrew the remark, explaining that his point was that standard plates do not bear names \u201cunless issued as personalised plates.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mrs. Osei Asare accepted the clarification but insisted that the Committee\u2019s scrutiny was motivated by public interest and the need for transparency in the digital number plate project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She concluded that the PAC would continue to demand detailed accountability from the DVLA on both the procurement process and the data security framework underpinning the new system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Chairperson of Parliament\u2019s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Abena Osei Asare, and the Chief Executive of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), Julius Neequaye Kotey, were involved in a heated exchange during Monday\u2019s committee sitting over the planned rollout of digital vehicle number plates. The confrontation stemmed from concerns raised by the PAC Chair […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":47216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[43,1],"tags":[7698,12478,7396,11337,11538,5432,5751,7583,5112,192,5910,12312,10342,1198,10614,12313,5655,7858,6258,6348,594],"class_list":["post-47215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-abena-osei-asare","tag-chips","tag-data","tag-demand","tag-digital","tag-digitalisation","tag-digitisation","tag-driver","tag-dvla","tag-ghana","tag-initiative","tag-julius-neequaye-kotey","tag-law","tag-parliament","tag-privacy","tag-radio-frequency-identification-rfid","tag-security","tag-tell-me","tag-transparency","tag-us","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47215"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47217,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47215\/revisions\/47217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}