NTSA yet to print 572,000 smart licences despite full delivery by supplier
This was despite the National Bank of Kenya, which was contracted to supply the cards, having already delivered more than four million.
The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) is once again under the spotlight after an audit revealed that over 572,000 smart driving licences worth Sh176 million remain unprinted years after the supplier delivered them, placing public funds at risk of going to waste.
According to Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu, the NTSA had only managed to print 1,637,930 cards by the end of June 2024, which is just 33 per cent of the total number it was expected to print under a contract signed in 2017.
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This was despite the National Bank of Kenya, which was contracted to supply the cards, having already delivered more than four million.
“Review of the project status as of June 30, 2024 revealed that 1,637,930 or 33 per cent of total contracted cards had been printed since inception, an indication of very low performance,” said Gathungu in the audit report for the year ending June 2024.
The Sh2 billion contract was signed between NTSA and the National Bank to supply, install, and maintain five million smart driving licences.
The plan was to complete the printing within three years. However, seven years later, the authority has printed less than half of the targeted cards, even though the supplier delivered nearly all of them.
The delay means that over 60 per cent of the estimated five million registered drivers in the country have not received the new licences, raising questions on whether they are driving without valid documents.
The smart driving licences use embedded chips similar to those in ATM cards, which lose functionality over time.
Experts say such smart cards, whether printed or unprinted, have a lifespan of five to 10 years before they become invalid. That means the unused cards at NTSA could soon expire.
The smart licences introduced to replace the old ones are valid for three years and cost drivers Sh3,050.
But the low printing rate risks making a huge portion of the stock delivered by NBK obsolete.
Some of the delivered cards were returned, while others remain in NTSA stores. The audit warns that the long delay in processing them could lead to losses if the cards degrade before being issued.
It also notes that the current report may not include the most recent developments because audit reports are often released after a time lag.
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