Auditors: LRA charged IT fees without clearance from DEPDev
The Land Registration Authority (LRA) reportedly charged service fees between 2012 to 2025 for its computer-based services without prior approval from the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev), state auditors said.
In the annual audit report of the Commission on Audit released on 28 October, it was disclosed that the LRA got service fees amounting to P10.13 billion from the said period.
State auditors explained that the fees stemmed from a build-own-operate agreement between the LRA and the Land Registration Systems, Inc. (LARES), intended for the implementation of the Land Titling Computerization Project (LTCP).
Under the 1999 Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Build-Operate-Transfer Law, any amendments that were made to a contract including the change in the amount of government undertakings the Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) of DEPDev had to be consulted.
CoA’s report said that a letter from the Secretariat of the ICC in 2023 explained that “should the additional services and fees be considered as an amendment to the existing BOO Agreement” a clearance from the committee was needed.
The auditing agency likewise noted that the audit observation was a repeat of its recommendations in 2024 that were not implemented in the previous year.
The particular services where the amounts were reportedly sourced from its Geo-Spatial Query Service, its service for the Electronic Certificate Authorizing Registration Authentication, registration of deeds transactions, operating and maintenance fees, and a percentage it took from certified true copies of registry documents it printed.
Data received from the Accounting Division and the Information and Communications Technology Division of the LRA reportedly revealed that a total of P5.25 billion was collected from the transactions from the said services from 2024 to 2025 alone.
It was noted that the Geo-Spatial Query Service had been suspended since 2023 but had gathered an amount of over P1 billion.
Amid its findings, CoA had reportedly penned a letter to the Department of Justice to receive a legal opinion on the matter which serves as its mother agency in order to identify the legality of charging and collecting the service fees.