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Guadiz vows to address 'slow' LTO transactions as complaints mount
Guadiz vows to address 'slow' LTO transactions as complaints mount
Newly-installed Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief Teofilo Guadiz vowed to double the efforts in expediting all the transactions in the agency amid complaints of slow processing of documents from getting driver’s license and its renewal, as well as registration of vehicles, which, some critics attributed to its new IT system.
In a media interview, Guadiz acknowledged the glitches of the Land Transportation and Management System (LTMS) amid reports that it now takes up to five days before the transaction is completed compared to the previous system wherein transactions are completed in hours.
Some LTO clients have been also complaining of difficulty in the entire transaction for both the licenses and vehicle registration but the LTO leadership earlier said that it is part of the birth pangs of the new digital system in the agency.
The LTMS is part of the digital shift program of the national government. In 2018, LTO awarded the said IT project to the Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) of a German tech firm, Dermalog, and three other local companies.
Based on the agreement, the IT firms would complete their deliverables in its 24 pilot sites by December 2018 but the Commission on Audit, in its 2020 report, said the delivery was delayed which caused inconvenience to the LTO clients and disadvantage to the national government.
COA again flagged the LTO for the supposed “undue payment” given to its foreign information technology (IT) contractor in 2021 wherein the Commission said LTO’s “acceptance of customized core applications with missing processes had caused undue payment to the vendor, which is disadvantageous to the government.”
The core applications include the Driver’s Licensing System (DLS) and the Motor Vehicle Inspection and Registration System (MVIRS), which were included in Component A of the LTMS.
According to COA, the DLS and MVIRS have unresolved issues as of December 2021 and their functionalities and processes are not yet fully configured, which caused disruptions in the operations of various LTO sites.
In Quezon City Licensing Center, it was reported that the LTMS automatically rejects transactions of all motorists aged 65 years old and above and has inadequate examination terminals to cater to the big volume of applicants.
In some cases, it was also reported that the LTMS cannot detect fake driver’s licenses and documents and cannot handle a client’s multiple transactions. A few months ago, the LTMS experienced a system bog down as confirmed by a Facebook post of an LTO NCR branch. This caused long lines at select LTO branches nationwide and interruption of services.
The same audit report also noted that the imposition of penalties was not implemented.
COA then advised the LTO to amend the schedule of requirements of LTMS to correct the computation of the remaining deliverables to ensure that the government will not pay additional fees.
The LTO earlier defended the LTMS, saying all measures are now being looked into to address the complaints of its clients.
LTO spokesperson Jun Bonsol said the agency is currently under transition period as he assured that all the concerns will be addressed.
“We acknowledge that these are indeed happening but these are part of challenges of using a new system. We are still currently on the transition period (from old system to LTMS) so we are appealing for understanding,” said Bonsol.
“We assure the public that these challenges is only limited to the time when they first use the system. Once they are registered in the system, everything will be easy and fast in the ensuing transactions with the LTO because the information that they would input will be permanent in the system,” he added.
He said that so far, 95 percent of LTO offices are using the LTMS.
As to the COA report, Bonsol said all the concerns raised by the Commission on Audits in its reports were already addressed by the LTO from last quarter of the 2021 to the first quarter of this year.
“We already explained everything to COA, including the compliance on the documentary requirements and the explanation o the hardship in dealing with the issues because of the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Bonsol.