The Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport (GDRT) on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the South African Insurance Crime Bureau (SAICB) aimed at reducing and combating fraud and corruption in the motor vehicle registration, driver licence testing, vehicle road-worthiness testing and the wider motor vehicle insurance industry.

Speaking at the MoU signing ceremony, in Johannesburg, Gauteng Roads and Transport MEC Dr Ismail Vadi pointed out that the formal partnership agreement between the department and the SAICB was the first such partnership in the country between a government department and the bureau.

“While government and business continue to optimise their individual efforts to counter crime in general, it is clear that this is not sufficient to deal with the problem adequately. The criminal threats posed to government and the private sector require an increased level of commitment and coordination between the public and private sectors,” Vadi said.

Also speaking at the ceremony, SAICB COO Hugo van Zyl said the main objective of the MoU was to address organised crime in South Africa.

He said, currently, 70% of the SAICB’s investigations were vehicle related, including transgressions such as the misuse of records to register stolen vehicles and “unscrupulous” vehicle testing centres that issue fraudulent roadworthy certificates.
“I cannot [place a value on how much it is costing the country and industry] but it is a huge problem at this stage, not only to our industry but also to government especially, because many [stolen] vehicles also leave our borders,” Van Zyl told Engineering News Online, adding that during the 2013 financial year R4-billion worth of stolen and hijacked vehicles left the country.

In terms of the MoU ,the GDRT and the SAICB would share information relating to vehicle fraud, crime and corruption across the department, the insurance industry and other crime prevention agencies to enable increased detection, prosecution and conviction of criminals operating in the motor vehicle sector, Vadi said.

Further, through the MoU, capacity and skills transfer between the GDRT and the SAIBC would be increased in terms of forensic investigations and the detection of fraudulent transactions.

“We will definitely have to [undertake] training within our own environment, as well as within the GDRT, to ensure that everyone is on the same page [regarding] how to deal with disciplinary hearings, court procedures and criminal procedures to [guarantee] [more] convictions,” Van Zyl stated.

Meanwhile, Vadi added that the MoU would also be used to develop greater synergies between the department and the SAICB to reduce the risk of vehicle cloning and the resultant “bogus registration of such hijacked or stolen vehicles”.

The GDRT was also especially concerned about the cloning of number plates.

Vadi pointed out that, in an attempt to address this, there was currently a draft regulation out for public comment that called for the standardisation of number plates nationally, across all nine provinces.

These standardised number plates, which would be rolled out should the legislation be approved, would have enhanced security features, he said.

“All these initiatives are aimed at ensuring integrity within our own information systems [and] that our officials are not linked to any syndicates,” Vadi stated, adding that the MoU brought about a critical partnership that “should have started a long time ago”.