Only three out of the 54 vehicles and motorized equipment owned by Gapan City in Nueva Ecija are registered with the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in 2023, the Commission on Audit (COA) said.
Also, COA said that on top of non-registration, most of the vehicles and motorized equipment were not insured with the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).
In its audit report, COA said that the registration of 41 units was not renewed while 10 units have no records of registration at all.
It said the non-registration of the vehicles and motorized equipment might result in possible loss or misuse of assets. Also, the city government would be exposed to possible penalties, fines, or sanctions from the LTO.
The city's vehicles and motorized equipment are compose of three fire trucks, a compactor, a cargo truck, 13 dump trucks, two transit mixers, an excavator, a crawler robex, a wheeler loader, two road graders, a bus, and several vans and cars.
Also, COA said it found that Gapan City failed to renew the insurance of 50 motor vehicles with the General Insurance Fund (GIF) of the GSIS.
The non-insurance, it said, was inconsistent with the provisions of Republic Act No. 656, the Property Insurance Law, as amended by Presidential Decree (PD) No. 245. Gapan City's failure to do so exposed the government to risk of non-indemnification for any damage or loss due to possible casualties that may happen on the insurable assets, COA said.
Out of the city's 54 vehicles, only four units have an updated insurance, 39 units were not renewed, while the remaining 11 units lack any record of insurance with the GSIS, it said.
During the audit, COA said that the city government reasoned that the non-registration with the LTO was due to the absence of emission testing, while one vehicle was procured recently, so the certificate of LTO registration has not been secured from the vendor.
The justification was not accepted by COA. It said: "The failure of the City to maintain its records and update the registration of its motor vehicles with the LTO indicates lack of proper management and control over the motor vehicles, which may result in the possible loss and misuse of the government assets."