1.7 million license plates still undelivered by LTO
Credit to Author: Elizabeth Marcelo| Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0800
MANILA, Philippines — A total of 1.797 million pairs of license plates worth P808.702 million, paid by registered car owners since 2015, remain undelivered to them by the Land Transportation Office (LTO), the Commission on Audit (COA) has said.
In its 2022 annual audit report on the Department of Transportation (DOTr), the COA noted that of the remaining 2,561,629 pairs of motor vehicle (MV) replacement plates paid by car owners upon renewal of registration of their vehicles, only 764,514 pairs were actually produced by the LTO, an attached agency of the DOTr, as of Dec. 31, 2022.
The COA said this translates to a backlog of 1,797,115 pairs of MV replacement plates worth P808.702 million, lower by only 29.84 percent from the backlog of 2,561,629 pairs at the end of 2021.
The audit body also noted that of the 764,514 pairs of MV plates produced by the LTO, only 506,059 pairs were actually issued to various regional offices for release to the vehicle owners while the remaining 258,455 pairs were still with the LTO’s Plate Making Plant (PMP) for packaging.
The COA said that despite the huge backlog, the PMP was instructed by the Plate Unit (PU) to temporarily stop the production of MV replacement plates mainly due to insufficient blank plates to cover the production of both replacement plates and plates for newly registered vehicles for 2023.
The COA said the PMP also told the audit team that some blank plates delivered by the supplier, Power Plates Development Concepts Inc.-J. Knieriem BV-Goes (PPI-JKG), could not be utilized due to the absence of Comma Separated Values (CSV) files which must be uploaded to the PMP system.
“[LTO] Management has already requested the supplier concerned through letter dated November 23, 2022 to provide the required CSV to all MV blank plates delivered so that it could be utilized by the agency, but is yet to receive a response thereon,” the COA said.
Meanwhile, the audit body also noted that of the remaining 20,509,807 new motorcycle (MC) plates procured by the registrants from 2014 to 2022, only 8,650,311 pieces were produced and issued by LTO’s PMP and PU, thus, a backlog of 11,859496 plates as of Dec. 31, 2022.
“The undelivered replacement MV plates and MC backlogs indicate lapses in the performance by the LTO Management of one of its mandates, thus depriving the registrants of their right to receive the plates they have paid for,” the COA said.
The COA noted that the MC plates produced by LTO were only for the 2018 to 2022 backlogs while none were produced to address the backlogs for 2017 and prior years.
“Based on the gathered information, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has released funds only for the 2018 to 2022 requirement for the MC backlogs, hence, the production of the MC backlogs from CY 2017 and below was left behind due to lack of funds,” the COA said.
The COA noted that for 2023, the LTO asked for a budget of P6.828 billion to address the current year’s plate requirement and prior years’ backlogs. The DBM, however, only approved P4.783 billion of the requested amount.
“Consequently, the target of management this CY 2023 to eliminate its backlog is still not feasible due to budgetary constraint,” the COA said.
The COA recommended to LTO to “fast-track the production of the MC backlog plates and MV replacement plates and subsequently issue them to the respective registrants nationwide.”
The COA said the LTO must also make a representation with the DBM “to immediately release the funds needed for the production of replacement plates and MC backlogs since the payment have been received and collected by LTO from the registrants.”
In a comment incorporated in the audit report, the LTO said that a procurement process for license plates to address the MC and MV plate backlogs was scheduled to be undertaken by the DOTr in February 2023. The LTO, however, did not specify the number of plates to be procured.
The LTO said it will also send its final demand letter to the supplier PPI-JKG regarding the missing CSVs in its delivered plates, “otherwise, LTO shall explore the legal actions in accordance with the contract of PPI-JKG.”