At present, HCM City has 73 driving schools, of which 56 are for auto-vehicles and the remaining 17 are for motorcycles. Photo tapchigiaothong.vn

Bùi Hòa An, deputy director of the HCM City Department of Transport, talks to Tuổi trẻ (Youth) newspaper on the challenges his department is facing in handling fake licences used by driving instructors

How do you respond to reports that several car driving schools have not paid enough attention to the quality of their instructors?

At present, HCM City has 73 driving schools, of which 56 are for auto-vehicles and the remaining 17 are for motorcycles. These driving schools have employed more than 6,570 people directly involved in giving driving lessons. However, in recent years, the number of people wanting driving licences has increased considerably and the demand for car instructors has also arisen.

Is this the excuse for 83 car instructors being found to have used fake instructors' licences?

According to the law, the HCM City Department of Transport is the only agency entitled to hire people to work as car driving instructors.

However, at present, there are no official requirements on whether the HCM City Department of Transport has to check and verify whether driving licences from applicants for positions as instructors are authentic or not. In reality, quite a few car instructors have used fake licences and this problem has become a headache for authorities.

What are requirements for car driving instructors to be recruited?

A car driving instructor must have good practical experiences. Only a few people with college diplomas have applied to become car driving trainers. Furthermore, one of the requirements is that a car instructor needs an IT certificate. In my opinion, such a requirement must be reconsidered.

Will a car training centre employing staff using faked certificates be sanctioned?

Five car driving training centres that employed 83 staff using faked certificates have had operations suspended for two months and each centre has to pay a fine of VNĐ4 million.

According to Decree 100, if any training centre gets two administrative fine tickets within 18 months, their operation license will be revoked.

How do you respond to a report saying that many people who have failed driving tests can have still got licences?

The driving test nowadays is very strict as members of the examination board are appointed by the HCM City Department of Transport. That’s why the number of people passing their tests for motorcycles is just between 75-78 per cent while for auto-car the rate is between 62-65 per cent compared to the previous years. Furthermore, all the tests are recorded for future reference. — VNS