LTO chief seeks full gov’t takeover of IT system from German contractor

Land Transportation Office Chief Assistant Secretary Atty. Vigor D. Mendoza II on Thursday said he is seeking a full takeover of the IT system which the government contracted with the German company Dermalog to handle all the transactions in the agency in 2019.

This is in line with President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s order to Department of Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista to digitalize all government transactions as part of giving faster and more convenient services to the public.

Mendoza said the LTO's takeover of the Land Transportation Management System will address the technical issues raised by the Commission on Audit and the Department of Information and Communications Technology.

The assessment and evaluation of the DICT disclosed 14 deficiencies in the LTMS system and 166 needed enhancements to further improve the system.

"Our IT experts are capable of operating and maintaining the system. In fact, sila po ang talagang nagtrabaho at patuloy na nagta-trabaho para ayusin ang sistema para maging madali at komportable sa ating mga end-users, and eventually maging fully utilized na ang ating online platform," Mendoza said.

The issuance of driver's license is now 10 percent under LTMS, while the renewal of motor vehicle registration is now at 95 percent under the LTMS system from 70 percent when he assumed the top LTO post late July this year, said Mendoza.

The focus right now, he added, is to further improve the registration of newly-registered units or NRUs, which is currently at 60 percent under the LTMS system.

The LTO is pushing for full digital transactions before the end of November this year.

"Magiging mas madali ang pag-maintain ng system at mas makakatipid ang gobyerno na maayos ang lahat ng deficiencies na nakita ng DICT because we are moving towards 100-percent utilization of the computer system na nabayaran ng goyerno ng mahigit P3 billion," said Mendoza.

"Kayang-kaya nating i-take over ito. In fact, this was the reason why I created a Technical Working Group and right now, we are in the final phase of review and assessment for full implementation by next month," said Mendoza.

Mendoza also belied the statement attributed to the representative of Dermalog that LTO personnel have been resisting the use of LTMS.

"This is not true, Nakita ko mismo ang ginagawa ng ating mga frontline employees so it is unfair to issue inaccurate statements like that," Mendoza said.