The Land Transportation Office’s (LTO) information technology service provider has explained its side on the alleged inefficiencies that caused massive delays in the agency’s delivery of vital services to the motoring public.
The Germany-based Dermalog Identification Systems GmbH cited its own record of performance in countries where it operated, to clarify the controversies hounding its involvement with LTO projects, notably the Land Transportation Management System (LTMS).
These issues have been fully explained before the Congressional Committee on Transportation and the Commission on Audit (COA), Dermalog insisted.
Dermalog, in a press statement, claimed that both the Congress and COA acceded on the 14 extensions and 3-month delay due to the inadequate structure of the building which served as the Data Center and which needed to be renovated.
The firm also blamed the COVID pandemic, work suspension and lockdown as reasons for the delays. “It was inaccurate to state that Dermalog has not fully activated the integrated system of the LTO’s IT infrastructure despite LTO having paid 80% of the P3.4 billion contract,” the company said.
It must be pointed out, Dermalog said, that LTMS is a fully integrated system with all the modules seamlessly working together.
“Unfortunately, LTO is not willing to make full use of all the available services,” Dermalog said.
Dermalog has been commissioned for the single ticketing system that has taken place and LTO is for the first time, the repository of all traffic violation tickets and can, for the first time, suspend drivers based on demerit points accumulated from apprehensions by other agencies.
To highlight the full integration of LTMS, an open TVR ticket in Quezon City will effectively block the apprehended driver from renewing his license with a ten-year term, Dermalog said.
LTMS is fully automated and prevents human intervention such as adjustment of fees and penalties, Dermalog said. “In all likelihood, this may have impelled the LTO to dismember and selectively utilize the LTMS. Due to its full integration of all modules, the registration of a motor vehicle identified as stolen or even with an open alarm cannot be registered by any means without disabling the entire LTMS,” Dermalog said.
No less than the LTMS project manager, Till Dunkel, has sufficiently explained during the congressional investigation into unresolved issues in the LTMS in the processing of driver’s license application, license renewal and vehicle registration, Dermalog said.
It was during the first congressional hearing of the House Transportation Committee led by Rep. Romeo Acop that eventually resulted in the replacement of Assistant Secretary Teofilo Guadiz as LTO chief and the undertaking of Stradcom to provide access to the LTO database to Dermalog and complete the data transfer by August 30, 2023.
