GLITCHES | The Land Transportation Office is under fire for paying billions of pesos for an online licensing and registration portal that a senator now wants scrutinized for frequently bogging down. (File photo by NI脩O JESUS ORBETA / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines 鈥� The Land Transportation Office (LTO) must be made to explain why it paid P3.15 billion in full to four companies for its new online licensing and registration portal despite a number of defects that generated 鈥渕assive disruptions鈥� in the system, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino 鈥淜oko鈥� Pimentel III said on Wednesday.
The senator, citing the red flags noted by the Commission on Audit (COA) in its 2021 audit report on the LTO, called on the Senate blue ribbon committee to look into the allegedly questionable payments made by the transport agency to the contractors for the outsourced information technology (IT) project.
The payment of such a huge sum was made to Dermalog Identification System, Holy Family Printing Corp., Microgenesis and Verzontal Builders despite the 鈥渋ncomplete turnover of deliverables,鈥� according to Pimentel in Senate Resolution No. 147.
This was 鈥渋n clear violation of the procurement and auditing rules and to the disadvantage and detriment of our government and country as a whole,鈥� Pimentel added.
鈥淯nsurprisingly, there have been complaints of slow processing of documents in getting a driver鈥檚 license and its renewal, as well as registration of vehicles, which have been attributed to its new IT system,鈥� the senator said.
He said the new LTO chief, Assistant Secretary Teofilo Guadiz III, who was appointed in late July, himself acknowledged that glitches in the land transportation management system (LTMS) were causing 鈥渕assive delays in LTO transactions nationwide.鈥�
5 days processing
Driver鈥檚 license application and motor vehicle registration now take five days, compared to the usual turnaround time of only two hours, Pimentel said.
鈥淚t is thus imperative for the LTO to explain why full payment has been made to the vendor of this IT system which has unresolved issues and are clearly not working as intended and is causing massive disruptions to the LTO processes,鈥� he said.
In a statement on Wednesday, the LTO said it would 鈥渃omply with whatever requirements the COA may put forth in order to shed light on details regarding the project鈥� and welcomed the chance to explain the 鈥渟upposed undue payments鈥� in a Senate inquiry.
鈥淲e would be more than willing to answer truthfully all questions regarding the matter,鈥� Guadiz said.
鈥淭he LTO is one with any person or institution in finding out the truth in the spirit of transparency and accountability. What we can also assure is that the LTO will remain cautious in entering into contracts and efficient in the delivery of service to the motoring public,鈥� he added.
Guadiz鈥檚 statement did not address specific questions in the COA report and Pimentel鈥檚 resolution.
In 2018, the Department of Transportation, the LTO鈥檚 parent agency, awarded the multibillion-peso IT project to the joint venture of Dermalog, Holy Family, Microgenesis and Verzontal Builders.
70 open issues
Under the contract, the joint venture was supposed to develop 鈥渃ore applications鈥� for the LTMS, including the driver鈥檚 licensing system and the motor vehicle inspection and registration system.
But Pimentel noted that based on the COA report, the contractors were paid for the applications in full despite their failure to accommodate certain LTO transactions, among 鈥�70 open issues still to be delivered by the vendor.鈥�
The senator said this was based on a review of the quality assurance reports dated Dec. 9, 2021, on the functionality and regression testing performed on each core application in LTMS version 2.3.0.
The LTO also reported 25 existing issues on the core applications that remained unresolved as of December 2021, purportedly disrupting the operations of various LTO licensing sites.
Services not rendered
Under the country鈥檚 procurement laws, according to Pimentel, no payment is supposed to be made for services not yet rendered or for supplies and materials not yet delivered under any contract with the government.
鈥淸I]t is a basic rule in procurement contracts that payment based on progress billing is allowed provided that the goods have been delivered or installed in accordance with the terms and conditions of the contract, and the same was duly inspected and accepted by the procuring entity as evidenced by a certification to that effect,鈥� the senator said.
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