Register all excavators within 2 weeks or it will be confiscated – DVLA directs owners

The government has directed owners and operators of excavators to register the equipment with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) within two weeks or have the equipment confiscated by the state. 

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of DVLA, Julius Neequaye Kotey, who gave the directive, said effective June 1 this year, any unregistered excavator would be confiscated by the state.

At a media briefing in Accra yesterday, Mr Kotey stressed that after the two-week ultimatum, the Ghana Police Service and the DVLA’s operational team would go around the country, arrest and confiscate any excavator operating at any mining site or in commercial use without registration with the DVLA.

Additionally, he said, the DVLA, in collaboration with other state agencies such as the Minerals Commission, National Security, the Ghana Ports and Harbour Authority (GPHA), and the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), had started registering and tagging all new excavators coming into the country.

“This exercise is to enable the identification of every excavator and equipment that enters the country and to trace their ownership, including their operations, to curb the phenomenon of unregistered excavators and farm equipment in the system, which cannot be tracked for their activities,” he said.

He added that the inter-agency collaboration was meant to facilitate the government’s effort to fight illegal mining, known locally as galamsey.

Mandate

Mr Kotey said the DVLA had the mandate to carry out the registration of excavators and other farm equipment under Section 38 of Act 683, which provides for the registration of motor vehicles and trailers.

He said although Section 38(1) of Act 683 stated categorically that “a person shall not own or drive a motor vehicle or motor trailer unless the motor vehicle or the trailer is registered under the Act”, the DVLA had become aware that there were some excavators operating in mining areas without registration with the authority.

Again, he said, some farm equipment found being used for galamsey had also not been registered with the authority.

“The DVLA has 34 offices across the country, so we have the capacity to register all excavators and farm equipment within the two-week ultimatum that has been given.

The authority stands ready to enforce our mandatory obligation without fail,” he said.

Galamsey fight

Mr Kotey said it was worrying that some persons continued to use excavators for illegal mining despite efforts that had been made by governments over the years to tackle the menace.

He said excavator use by illegal miners was what had aggravated the destruction of the environment, and stressed that the move to register and track the equipment would help to stem the tide.

The DVLA CEO said it had become imperative for all stakeholders to contribute their quota in a collaborative way to fight the galamsey menace.

“This collaboration must include the representatives from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, Minerals Commission, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, Customs Division of the GRA, and, of course, the DVLA, as well as other law enforcement agencies,” he stressed.

Background

For over eight years now, there has been an upsurge in galamsey across the country, with the government making frantic efforts to tackle the menace.

There have been concerns that a system needed to be put in place to help in tracing excavators used for illegal mining to their owners for punitive action to be taken against them.

Last month, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, revealed that the government had initiated the process to track the importation and use of excavators in the country.

The minister explained that the initiative, which formed part of measures to fight illegal mining, would involve trained enforcement officers at the port to tag and track all excavators being brought into the country.

Mr Buah had also indicated that the ministry was rolling out the system in collaboration with relevant state agencies, including the Ministry of Transport, GPHA, GRA, the DVLA, the Minerals Commission and the Forestry Commission.

Again, he said, apart from tagging excavators being imported, all such equipment already in the country would be tagged by a dedicated team spearheaded by the Minerals Commission.

The minister added that as part of the government’s resolve to deploy modern technology to facilitate the fight against galamsey, all legal small-scale mining concessions had been geo-fenced, while the coordinates of the site plans of each concession had been integrated into the Ghana Mine Repository and Tracking software at the Minerals Commission.