It seems that the Department of Transportation (DOTr) is yet again in hot water. The Commission on Audit (COA) is calling out the DOTr for not being able to deliver over 8.12 million license plates amounting to P2.1 billion to their rightful owners throughout 2014 to 2020.
According to the 2020 audit report made by the COA, “Various circumstances caused delays in the procurement of plates, thus resulted in the undelivered license plates of the registrants nationwide from CY 2014 to CY 2022 amounting to ?2,159,036,340.00 corresponding to 8,120,837 pieces of MC and 2,632,302 pairs of replacement of MV license plates.”
The COA further revealed that the massive build-up and delay have led motorists to think that this is a clear sign of “lapses in the performance by the LTO (Land Transportation Office) management of one of its mandates, thus, depriving the registrants of their right to retrieve the plates they have paid for and affecting the efficient apprehension of the traffic violators.”
To hear the side of the DOTr, Top Gear PH was able to ask for a statement from DOTr Assistant Secretary Goddes Libiran, wherein she stated that “Please note lang that the plate backlog stemmed from a contract signed in 2013, where the then DOTC entered into a contract with the PPI-JKG to produce 5,236,439 pairs of motor vehicle plates and 9,968,017 pieces of motorcycle plates, costing P1.989 billion and P1.196 billion, respectively, under the LTO’s Motor Vehicle License Plate Standardization Program (2014-2017). This was subjected to a Notice of Disallowance and Supreme Court TRO which was only lifted in late 2018.”
She also defended the DOTr saying, “Hindi ang LTO ngayon ang gumawa ng problema. In fact, sila ang gumagawa ng solusyon para mahabol lahat ng backlog since the TRO and the Disallowance were lifted in 2018.”
The assistant secretary will also ask for an official statement from the DOTr regarding this issue.
On the other hand, the Commission on Audit claims to have called out the responsible agency in order to hopefully push the necessary urgency in the production and distribution of these license plates by the DOTr.
