A damning report on the Road Traffic Department

Tue, May 10th 2016, 12:31 AM

The report of the auditor general on the Road Traffic Department has revealed a culture of slackness and likely corruption at the state agency.
The general audit covers the period July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2015. The report revealed that a minimum of $10 million in motor vehicle license revenue has been lost at the department due to a "severe lack of order and control around the safeguarding of assets, collection of revenue and reporting of the same".
The report, signed on May 3, 2016 by Auditor General Terrance Bastian, was tabled in Parliament yesterday.
It stated that based on inquiries with management, the Road Traffic Department has not maintained a register of the registered number of all licensed motor vehicles, which is a requirement of the law, and a listing of all active and inactive license plates could not be produced for audit inspection.
What is unaccounted for may actually be far more than the $10 million figure.
"If a forecast would be performed based on the total number of license plates produced and issued, approximately 374,000 plates, to the public as of June 30, 2015, one would estimate that the motor vehicle license revenue should be at a minimum of $73 million (374,000 multiplied by $195) instead of the reported average of $26 million per annum," according to the report.
"If the approximate number of 374,000 plates was reduced by 50 percent there would still be an estimated loss of $10 million as compared to the actual recorded revenue noted herein."
That is a startling remark by the auditor general. He is indicating that there may be nearly $50 million unaccounted for per year from the vehicle registration system.
As a result of the report, Transport and Aviation Minister Glenys Hanna-Martin said yesterday in the House of Assembly police will investigate instances of malfeasance and fraud.
"And persons found to be allegedly associated with such activity will be immediately removed from the department in accordance with procedures of the public service," she said.
Road Traffic Controller Ross Smith emphasized the same thing.
The audit found that the West Bay Street and Carmichael Road locations do not produce customer receipts and accountability of revenue collected at these locations is dependent on a handwritten listing of vehicles inspected and a cashier's calculator tape.
"Without proper retention of records related to revenue collection, there is no way of determining whether all assets disbursed to the Road Traffic Department's locations are being accounted for in the end of day revenue collection," according to the report.
"Allowing revenue collection office to operate without being accountable for producing receipts, reconciling assets, and retaining documentation around the same creates an environment conducive to fraud."
The minister iterated that an $8.3 million automation project began in April 2015, an initiative she said the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) was close to beginning before it lost office in 2007. She blamed the Free National Movement (FNM) for not following through on the reforms.
Automation is necessary; intervention by police is necessary; intervention by the Ministry of Finance is necessary to fix the mess at Road Traffic. The report, though, speaks to such an unaccountable culture that the government needs to make sure its cycles out as many of the employees who have been part of these inappropriate practices as possible. Widespread change is needed. The culture must be broken.
People accustomed to taking some for themselves and leaving a little for government are not going to change because of automation. New people are needed at Road Traffic under a more strict and orderly regime. This is not to say that all or the majority of the department's employees are dishonest. But clearly there are quite a few unsavory characters who have been filling their pockets.
We shall see if the government follows through with overhauling the department or if today's statement by the minister was only a public relations effort to counter what the auditor general said. The people's money needs to be protected. We hope the government is serious about change.

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