Beat the red tape

Before going to office on Monday, I took time out to accompany one of my twin boys to renew his driver’s license at the Land Transportation Office in Pasay City. Actually, he was two days late for the renewal of his driver’s license. He was supposed to do that on or before his birthday last Friday. I had to accompany my son to the LTO because I did not want him to drive his car with a lapsed driver’s license which would be tantamount to driving without license if caught, or if he gets involved in an accident.

I was dreading to go to LTO because it reminded me of a sad experience three years ago. My dread, however, was not related to LTO services but to the bad news I received while assisting my twins to get their first driver’s licenses on their birthday. While I was at the LTO, I got a phone call about the sudden demise of our late deputy managing editor, Alex Fernando. Crying while talking with someone on my mobile phone, my twins told me later some people thought I was arrested by LTO for illegal activity.

My coming back to the LTO the other day was rather a pleasant experience this time. I found very refreshing, impressive and highly improved the services at the LTO. Red tape used to paralyze this government agency in charge of matters related to issuing licenses to drivers and registration of all land transport motor vehicles.

Armed with new computer equipment and information technology (IT) system put up by Stradcom Corp., the LTO has come up with a standard processing time (SPT) of documents. The procedures, like the licensing process, are time-bound. Thus, public transactions at the LTO now take about 30 minutes only for plain renewal of driver’s licenses from the time you submit all the required documents.

Thirty minutes at the most would be spent for those getting their student permit and for overseas Filipino workers getting their driver’s license. This 30 minutes do not include drug testing and medical examinations for those getting new and those renewing their licenses.

It takes a longer time, though, of 240 minutes or four hours for those getting new driver’s licenses. This includes the 120 minutes allotted for LTO lecture, taking of written examination, and checking of the exam plus another 60 minutes for the actual driving exam and encoding of the rating.

For those securing a duplicate driver’s license (in case of lost licenses), it takes 120 minutes or two hours. Since these are duplicate licenses, approval and collection of fees are given more allotted time.

The SPT implemented at the LTO has significantly sped up the flow of papers and therefore enhanced delivery of public services. It likewise increased substantially the non-tax revenues that LTO generates for the government. Thus, LTO is now among the top five income earners of the government.

The whole new information management system installed by Stradcom at the LTO is a commendable example of an effective program to fight corruption by removing its breeding grounds like red tape in the bureaucracy.

The wonders of technology are evident as motorists now just spend minutes or a few hours for their transactions to be processed. The same time-bound process is also observed in the renewal of vehicle registration and violations settlement. These transactions are completed at the LTO within 30 minutes to an hour when they used to take a whole day or even several days in the past. Less man-hours lost, thanks to technological wonders!

The long waiting period and the long lines that pervaded the LTO more often than not, compelled motorists to have their transactions arranged by “fixers” who would take on these tasks for fees. Motorists are, of course, only too willing to shell out extra cash just to speed up their transactions rather than wait for hours, days, or even weeks and bear the burden of dealing with mulcting employees.

I personally witnessed the big improvement while waiting for his license. Everything was moving smoothly until my son suddenly got stuck at the LTO window receiving his documents. He was asked for his tax identification number (TIN) from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR). Since he is still in college, naturally, he replied he is not a taxpayer yet. But he was shown a Memorandum Circular, dated Sept.16, 2009 issued by LTO chief, assistant secretary Arturo Lomibao that stated this specific requirement of TIN.

I remembered this was the same TIN requirement that the LTO chief supposedly addressed already following public complaints raised against it last month. It turned out that the TIN requirement was merely reworded in the new memo of Lomibao but it was not eased out. What was further weird in Lomibao’s memo was, it likewise required TIN for student permit application by foreign students.

So we sought out audience with the LTO director for licensing, Reynaldo Salazar Jr. He told me they have to comply with this requirement because the LTO undergoes regular performance audit and this TIN requirement is part of the audit system. Salazar told me the SPT is closely monitored through a “routing slip” as one of the checks installed to make sure the time requirements are followed up to the last second. And the LTO men and women cannot cheat on the time as there are both internal and external auditors who conduct a regular audit performance.

I have no quarrel with this TIN as a requirement for driver’s license. The problem though is you have to get it from the BIR which does not even have a satellite or desk office at the LTO. Simple common sense dictates that a BIR representative office should be part of the one-stop-shop at the LTO to facilitate the whole process. A simple weaving in of the BIR computer system with that of Stradcom’s system at the LTO could simplify the work flow.

While there has been highly improved public service by the LTO courtesy of Stradcom’s new information management system, these gains are negated by this totally irrelevant TIN requirement. Obviously, the agency is being made to do the job that BIR fails to do: To capture taxpayers in their data network. This is the prize of the success of LTO’s program to beat the red tape.