STATE auditors have revealed that the Land Transportation Office (LTO) posted a license plate production backlog of 11.86 million pieces for motorcycles (MCs) and 1.8 million pairs for motor vehicles (MVs) as of December 31, 2022.
This was disclosed in a 258-page audit report on the 2022 transactions of the Department of Transportation released last July 13.
The Commission on Audit said the LTO, an attached agency of the DOTr, must step up production of the license plates for both multi-wheeled vehicles and motorcycles, noting the agency had already collected payments from vehicle owners.
According to the audit team, replacement plates totaling 1,797,115 pairs paid by vehicle owners in 2015 in the sum of P808.7 million were still not yet produced and remained undelivered to various regional offices for distribution.
“Moreover, out of 20,509,807 motorcycle plates that need to be produced … only 8,650,311 were actually produced and issued in 2022, leaving a balance of 11,859,496,” auditors said.
The DOTr admitted that owners of green-plate vehicles are facing a longer wait because the production of replacement plates has been halted, adding it’s anybody’s guess when it will resume.
“The management prioritized the production of license plates for newly registered motor vehicles due to the scarce stock of usable license plates,” the agency said in its comment to the audit observations.
Worse, the Plate Unit and Plate Making Plant (PMP) informed the COA that the 8.65 million motorcycle license plates they completed as of 2022 were only for MC owners from 2018 to 2022.
Production of plates for years 2017 and earlier has not resumed.
The DOTr blamed the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), saying only the budget for 2018 to 2022 plates was funded, leaving the plates for 2017 and older motorcycles unfunded.
During an exit conference with the audit team, the LTO said it had intended to start procurement for production of backlog plates for older MVs and MCs last February 2023 but the process was taken over by the DOTr pursuant to Special Order No. 2023-024 dated January 25, 2023.
