COA orders DOTC to auction impounded vehicles

MANILA, Philippines - More than 735 impounded vehicles unclaimed for months should be auctioned off immediately before they deteriorate or are cannibalized for parts or worse, stolen, the Commission on Audit (COA) said.

In a 2012 report released only last week, COA directed the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) to dispose of the vehicles being kept at Land Transportation Office (LTO) compounds in Metro Manila, Ilocos, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Zamboanga, Davao and Western Visayas. The LTO is under the DOTC.

“We recommended that the management of LTO-NCR, Regions I, IV, VI, IX and XI facilitate the disposal of the unclaimed motor vehicles and motorcycles after the reglamentary period,” the COA report read.

The report did not say how long a reglamentary period is.

“The failure or delay in disposing these vehicles poses risk of possible theft or pilferage of spare parts,” state auditors said, adding that the holding facilities for the vehicles were getting crowded. State auditors said the sale of the vehicles would provide the government with much-needed revenues.

COA, in its report, said the longer the vehicles are left idle the faster they lose value. Some of the vehicles have been lying unattended at LTO facilities for up to eight months. Left under the sun for months, many of the vehicles have deteriorated – with some now covered with thick vegetation.

In its report, COA also asked the DOTC to conduct an inventory of the impounded vehicles and maintain a database of information on circumstances that led to their seizure by the LTO.

State auditors said final written notices should be sent by the DOTC to owners of impounded vehicles being readied for auction, as required by law.

State auditors also said they should be informed at least 20 days before a public auction of the vehicles is announced.