NPTC urges Congress to look into driver’s license, registration issues
A MAJOR transport group has called on both the House of Representatives and Senate to look into the Land Transportation Office’s foreign information technology contractor on some projects that have unresolved issues such as driver’s license and vehicle registration.
In a statement, the National Public Transport Coalition (NPTC) urged the Congress to investigate German contractor Dermalog in connection with the unresolved issues in the implementation of the Land Transportation Management System (LTMS) project that have repeatedly disrupted the operations of the Land Transportation (LTO), particularly the processing of documents in getting a driver’s license and its renewal, as well as registration of vehicles.
Ariel Lim, NPTC president, said that after 14 extensions and two-and-half years delay, Dermalog has yet to deliver in full the integrated system of the IT infrastructure despite substantial payment made by the LTO, amounting to 80% of the P3.4 billion contract.
According to Lim, Dermalog’s alleged non-compliance with its contract has resulted in delays in the processing of driver’s licenses and motor vehicle registrations, and other services and opened the door for the seamless registration of colorum public transport and even carnapped vehicles.
“Actually we have already requested the Senate and the House of Representatives to look into the failure of Dermalog to deliver the complete system because it is the cause of the recurring glitches in the LTO system,” he said.
Lim also noted that the agreed six-month delivery timeline of the said IT system was not met, adding that “more than four years since the December 2018 delivery date, the system is still not fully functional and fully rolled out.”
“Can the contractor explain the basis for developing the new system and why at this point, the LTO has hot yet been able to use the system it bought,” Lim further said.
Reports said that LTO chief Jose Art “Jay Art” Tugade is already looking into the issue.
Tugade inherited the problem from his predecessor. He was appointed in November 2022. The LTMS is a P3.4 billion project awarded to German contractor Dermalog and its local partners in 2018 under a joint venture agreement (JVA) to digitize LTO transactions.
Lim also noted thatthe Commission on Audit (COA), in its 2021 audit report, issued a red flag on the LTO’s questionable payment of P3.15 billion to the Dermalog JVA for its new online licensing and registration portal despite a number of defects that generated massive delays and disruption in the system.
