COA: Contractor bungled LTO computerization

The Commission on Audit (COA) said the bungled computerization of the systems at the Land Transportation Office (LTO) was to blame for anomalous and unscrupulous transactions in the issuance of driver’s licenses and car plates as well as in the registration of motor vehicles.

In its Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) audit report for 2007, the COA said it found numerous deficiencies in the information technology (IT) systems established by Stradcom Corp. for the driver’s license issuance and renewal process; the inventory management system (IMS) by which LTO controls the manufacture and issuance of car plates and other forms issued by the agency; and the Manufacturers, Assemblers, Importers and Dealers Reporting System (MAIDRS) that monitors the manufacture and importation of cars to prevent car theft and carjacking.

The COA said it detected numerous cases of manual uploading and processing of driver’s license applications and motor vehicle registration despite the supposed computerization of the system since 1998, when Stradcom bagged the billion-peso contract.

“Under a computerized environment, there is no room for human intervention in processing transactions as this will encourage manipulation of data resulting in distortion of information,” the COA said.

“However, during operation of LTO’s computerized system, there were cases when transactions were processed manually due to system slowdown, hanging and power failure,” the COA added.

The COA said the LTO, in coordination with Stradcom, introduced an “offline” facility that processes manual transactions “as a remedy” to the persistent “systems failure.”

The agency also authorized the collection of computer fees from transactions that are processed manually using the offline facility formulated by Stradcom. All computer fees collected are deposited in an escrow account maintained at the Land Bank of the Philippines in the name of Stradcom, the COA said.

However, despite the arrangement, the COA said Stradcom billed LTO for manually uploaded transactions even without “prooflists.” The COA also found that some transactions were uploaded three years later despite Stradcom’s commitment to upload transactions within 48 hours.

The COA also questioned the LTO’s contract with Stradcom for not imposing penalties on the contractor for manually processed transactions caused by their systems’ bogdowns.

The DOTC also noted that Stradcom failed to install the components of a computerized IMS, including an IMS tracking facility for the LTO, that had a delivery deadline of 2003.

The COA found that the IMS tracking facility was installed in only four LTO offices nationwide – the Property Office at the LTO Central Office, the National Capital Region, and LTO offices in Regions 3 and 4 – and the facility was not connected to the LTO’s motor vehicle registration system.

The COA said the lack of an IMS was to blame for the anomalous registration of motor vehicles and the proliferation of fake “accountable forms” at the LTO.

“There have been reported cases in the registration of motor vehicles where the same plate numbers were issued to more than one vehicle registered, due to lack of safeguards or controls which can prevent their occurrence,” the COA added.