The Land Transportation Office (LTO) is seeking the full takeover of the online platform that was contracted by the national government from a German information technology (IT) company.
LTO chief Asst. Sec. Vigor Mendoza II said the government takeover will not only expedite all the technical issues raised by the Commission on Audit (COA) and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).
The German IT system provider Dermalog has introduced the Land Transportation Management System (LTMS) in 2019 and more than P3 billion has already been paid by the national government.
The LTMS, however, were not fully utilized due to issues raised by both COA and the DICT, including 14 deficiencies and 166 enhancements needed in order to ensure a smooth flow and glitch-free use of end-users.
These deficiencies and enhancements were pointed as the reasons why the LTMS has not been fully utilized until now.
Of the 166 enhancements pointed out by the DICT, the German firm is seeking more than P600 million in payments for one-third of them.
This prompted Mendoza to issue a statement that the national government would save enough money if the LTO would take over the system instead of extending the contract for the maintenance and enhancements.
“Our IT experts are capable of operating and maintaining the system. In fact, they remain on the frontline in ironing out all that need to be done in order for us to fully utilize the system,” said Mendoza.
Amid the bickering of two IT system providers in the LTO, Mendoza created a Technical Working Group to consolidate the system. This resulted in the easier and more convenient shift to digital services in the lTO.
For instance, the driver’s license issuance is now 100 percent under LTMS while the renewal of motor vehicle registration is now at 95 percent under LTMS system from 70 percent when he assumed the top LTO post late July this year.
Mendoza said the focus right now is to further improve the registration of newly-registered units or NRUs which is currently at 60 percent under the LTMS system.
The LTO is pushing for full digital transactions before the end of November this year.
“We can really operate and maintain this. In fact, this was the reason why I created a Technical Working Group and right now, we are in the final phase of review and assessment for full implementation by next month,” said Mendoza