The country’s motoring sector – operators, PUV drivers, private vehicle owners, dealers, motorists, and even commuters – are all praises that the computerization project at the Land Transportation Office (LTO) started in 2000 is achieving enormous success.
Interconnecting more than 200 agency sites nationwide, the automation project has transformed the once antiquated bureaucratic procedures into a more efficient and wider client-friendly system.
In terms of concrete benefits, these were attained dramatically by the system: It has reduced transaction time for driver’s license issuance and renewal, as well as motor vehicle registration. Before waiting time for these transactions extended to months on end.
It has increased the volume of transactions and their corresponding revenues by more than 100 percent. In peso terms, it averages R15 billion annually, making LTO one of the top revenue earners of the government.
However, the gains of the LTO computerization project may just vanish once the agency reverts to the manual system. The LTO-IT shutdown could spell disaster for motorists, government agencies, and businesses that are currently connected to the LTO-IT system.
The big question now is: Will the government allow the public to suffer the consequences if we go back to the archaic and graft-ridden system of operations?
We can’t help asking ourselves why our government officials remain apathetic about this looming crisis at the LTO.
Before her suspension, Assistant Secretary Virginia Torres issued a memorandum addressed to all LTO field personnel to prepare for manual operations. Again, the public is dumbstruck by such a directive. Having been a career official at LTO, she should be the first to realize the chaos that will ensue once the agency goes back to manual operations.
Computerization made life difficult for illegal syndicates and other corrupt officials within LTO offices. If the agency goes back to manual operations, all the fixers, corrupt personnel and criminal groups will strike a cord of chorus, “Happy days are here again!”
The inability of the LTO to settle the unpaid fees to its IT provider could lead to an imminent shutdown of the LTO-IT system. At an average, the monthly expenses needed to operate and maintain the system, including the electricity for the IT systems in all LTO offices, amount to almost R200 million. As of May, the outstanding unpaid fees for the services rendered had already accumulated to R1.017 billion.
At this point, we cannot blame Stradcom if they decide to stop operations in the near future due to inability to sustain the operational expenses.
We cannot imagine how the LTO can handle over 65,000 daily transactions a day.
Without a computerized and interconnected system, the records can easily be tampered with, manipulated, or even erased totally. Needless to say, a boon to illegal vehicle importers, carjacking syndicates, and other criminal groups, in connivance with unscrupulous LTO officials and personnel.
Malacañang needs to consider the revenue losses that may be incurred if we go back to a manual system – from fake insurance policies to non-payment of import duties and taxes. Fraudulent motor vehicle registrations are so enormous, they amount to billions of pesos.
This case will test the political will of the administration. If P-Noy wants to promote good governance where transparency and accountability are given high priority, he should exhaust all efforts to prevent the LTO-IT shutdown and its ill-effects on our economy, public order, and safety.
The LTO-IT project is one of the most successful government computerization projects completed under the BOT Law formulated during the Ramos administration.
Through the Build-Operate-Own scheme, Stradcom investors, including E-PLDT and the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank, poured in more than US$100 million to get the LTO-IT project off the ground, without the government spending a single centavo.
Clearly, the success of this project is a landmark example of a viable and sustainable public-private partnership (PPP) project. However, recent events might just ruin all the positive gains that it has generated in the past years.
The unilateral withholding of payment by the head of LTO for all the services rendered by Stradcom sends a strong negative signal to foreign investors that the Philippine government is not a reliable and credible business partner. It will surely tarnish the investment credibility of the Aquino administration, a program President Noynoy is working hard to perk up.
Apparently, the actions of LTO officials are not consistent with the pronouncement of the President. While the President is exerting all efforts to promote public and private partnerships, the LTO is damaging the partnership which has already been established for more than a decade and has been through three presidents. How can we renew business confidence of the local and foreign investors if this government cannot resolve the looming crisis at the LTO which has already dragged for months?
How can we attract private investors to finance government projects if the government itself does not honor its contractual obligations with its private business partner as seen in the case of LTO and Stradcom?
If this government is really serious to live up with its promise to promote graft-free and transparent governance, it will never allow the LTO to revert back to manual operations.
Let’s hope this looming crisis is averted before President Noynoy’s State-of-the-Nation Address (SoNA) in July.
(source: TAK Radio)
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Truly amazing what they have done.