Around a week after the Commission on Audit (COA) released their findings regarding the Philippine National Police, particularly its purchase of Mahindra patrol vehicles, now it’s the Department of Transportation (DOTr)’s turn to get scrutinized. And while there have been some improvements over at the DOTr, the same problems still plague this government agency.

The full 185-page-plus report can be accessed here, but there are some points worth highlighting.

• From January to December 2017, there were 10,410,814 vehicles registered or a 13 percent variance from the LTO’s target of 8,981,520 vehicles.
• 90 percent of new vehicle registrations were accomplished with corresponding Motor Vehicle plates and stickers issued within 7 days.
• A total of 6,628,459 driver’s licenses were issued in 2017, up 15 percent from their target of 5,673,290. The number of apprehensions for which a Temporary Operator’s Permit was issued? 640,455 or about 10 percent of the total number of issued driver’s licenses.
• 11,695 vehicles remain impounded at LTO Offices nationwide which costs the government some P 12,577,245.17. Meanwhile, 755 vehicles cannot be disposed due to the absence of policies and procedures. One vehicle, a motorcycle was actually stolen because the impounding lot is shared with a construction firm.

The COA report also pointed out some key problems that continue to plague the DOTr, particularly the LTO, some of which are very familiar to everyone by now:

• Delay in procurement and delivery of 2,498,144 driver’s licenses; 1,216,569 validation stickers; and 1,506,116 plate year tags.
• The LTO has P 16.921 million worth of “obsolete aluminum sheets” for the manufacture of the old-style plates and P 55.334 million worth of “obsolete plate year tags and validation stickers.”
• Despite the delivery of 9 million driver licenses cards last year, there’s still a shortage of 2,200,484 for the 3-year validity and 2,498,144 cards for the 5-year validity. The reason? The slow and intermittent internet connection in various LTO offices as well as interface issues between the old and new systems.
• 85 percent of 76 out of 89 units of dashcams ordered by the LTO amounting to 6,840,000 remain unissued and unused (for those who’re poor in mental math, that means every dashcam cost P 90,000). Why weren’t they installed? Since the dashcams comes with a “IT back-end support, it is only the supplier who has the capability to install and customize the system.” Also, because the installation of the dashcams was not included as one of the deliverables in the supplier contract.
• Additionally, 386 out of 606 units of alcohol breath analyzers remain unissued and unused. The total cost of these? P 14,976,800 or about P 38,800 for each breathalyzer. The reason for their non-use? Because there’s no proper guidelines to the issuance of these breathalyzers to law enforcers.
• When it comes to the PUV Rationalization and Modernization Programs which the DOTr earmarked P 569 billion for, only P 88.5 billion or 15.54 percent was transferred to the Implementing Agencies because of the agencies’ unreadiness to implement the project. In fact, only P 1.86 million or 0.33 percent was actually disbursed.

Throughout the report, the COA would repeatedly cite the DOTr’s mandate through various Presidential Decrees and/or Citizen Charters. Clearly, it’s COA’s way of nailing down the point that the agency hasn’t been performing its duties 100 percent; there’s clearly a big room for improvement. Hopefully, the agency led by Art Tugade sees this report as an opportunity to improve on their performance in 2018.