MTD to streamline 88-year-old manual filing system
View(s):Sri Lanka’s Motor Traffic Department (MTD) will streamline its 88-year-old manual filing system of maintaining vehicle registration records, details of driving licences and other related documents and its ages-old storage system with the construction of a new storage facility at a cost of Rs.50 million, official sources revealed. This will be an interim arrangement until the launch of a fully new automated documentary transfer management system. MTD is currently carrying out most of its motor vehicle transfers in a centralised manner and it is required to keep the files safely with documents relating to vehicle registration and ownership transfers as it is a legal requirement. The department generates 3500 files daily and as a result it is currently facing severe difficulties in providing sufficient space for storing it as storage facilities have not been improved since 2005, MTD officials said.
The MTD has sought the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Management for the ongoing construction of the new storage facility and building of racks at a cost of Rs. 50 million, a senior official told the Business Times. He added that the DMT has been directed by the Auditor General and Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts to maintain a proper file management system for vehicle registrations and other related transactions. The maintenance of over 4.7 vehicle registration files in dusty record rooms has become an extremely messy affair and it is difficult for workers to find a relevant file or documents as and when it is required, he added. He revealed that a temporary arrangement has been made to store the old files in four containers due to the lack of space at record rooms at Narahenpita MTD office.
The fully automated documentary transfer management system will be implemented as a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) project with private sector participation soon, he added. He noted that documents normally stored in the department’s record room will be scanned electronically, and the original documents will be returned to the owner. He disclosed that the department will implement an ambitious e-Motoring project in which services to citizens related to motor vehicles would be automated. It aims at developing, implementing and deployment of a comprehensive ICT solution to provide effective and efficient delivery of selected citizen services of MTD and the Provincial Motor Traffic Department (PMTD).