RTA to capture all vehicles under one database

Caption:  Transport Secretary Roy Mumu

By MATTHEW VARI

Sunday, August 3, 2014 (Sunday Chronicle, PNG)

TRANSPORT Secretary Roy Mumu has revealed that the new Road Traffic Authority (RTA), passed by Parliament in May, will accompany a state of the art database system that will capture every register vehicle in the country under one body.

Formed for the sole purpose of unifying all land transport bodies and functions- the RTA will merge the current Land Transport Board, the Road Safety Authority, and obtain control of the delegated function of registration which will remain with MVIL.

Secretary Mumu revealed that the operational aspects in the merge will be revealed later- once authority bill was certified and gazette.

“Under RTA we will have a single standalone nationwide system- if you need to register your vehicle in Vanimo, it is captured in Port Moresby through the one system,” Mumu said.

“Right now if your license expires in Hagan where it has been confiscated for whatever reason- you can get a new one in Port Moresby- under the RTA that will stop under a new nationwide system.”

“The time has come where we are now at an advanced stage, with the economic boom that we are experiencing we must improve our systems.”

He added that all provincial land transport boards will continue to operate but under the new RTA body.

“A lot of the defaulters to motor traffic rules get away without being punished because of a lack of enforcement; the job of enforcement has been played many agencies through the delegation of that function to enforce,” the secretary said.

“Right now there are so many standalone systems that you do not know who is who and it is so difficult to coordinate as one body.”

“Under RTA we are going to talk real figures and relate that to real cost and revenue and we need to improve.”

When asked what would happen to the staff of the two sector agencies to be merge, the secretary revealed that an evaluation process was underway to identify reposting within the department and selected officers would also remain to run RTA.

“The National Transport Strategy document will guide the department for the next 30 years and we want to separate regulatory functions from main operational functions to avoid a duplication of functional responsibilities.”

“The department and its agencies in the agency are going through agency diagnostics which will look at what the core business is, and their functions to avoid duplication of functions.

“Staff of the merging agencies will look at where to fit in the staff in internal realignment and staff will be redeployed in system and the new system,” he said.