Audit: RMV allowed suspended drivers to remain on the road

July 9, 2008 12:45 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By John C. Drake, Globe Staff

Administrative delays allowed thousands of Massachusetts drivers to remain behind the wheel for years even after the courts had ordered their licenses to be suspended or revoked, State Auditor Joe DeNucci said today.

DeNucci's audit of the Registry of Motor Vehicles found that about 7,500 to 9,000 drivers whose licenses had been stripped by the courts during 2005 and 2006 were able to keep their licenses for two to four additional years. DeNucci faults both delays by the RMV in processing the orders and delays by the court system in submitting the records of suspensions and revocations to the RMV.

In a press release, the auditor's office said the RMV has no process for ensuring the results of court proceedings are entered into the state's computerized database. DeNucci is calling for increased monitoring by the RMV to ensure that once a court case is settled, the results are promptly entered into its database.

"The Registry is the primary agency responsible for the administration and enforcement of our motor vehicle laws, so it has a responsibility to ensure that the public is protected by suspending or revoking the licenses of unsafe drivers as soon as possible following a court disposition," DeNucci said in a statement.

According to the auditor's press release, the RMV responded to the audit by "expressing frustration with delays in getting the information from the courts" but nonetheless committing to improve the timeliness of processing license suspensions and revocations.

The RMV audit further found that some owners of luxury vehicles, including Ferraris and Lamborghinis, had been underbilled for their auto excise taxes, causing Massachusetts communities to lose out on millions in revenues. Since the luxury cars do not have assigned Kelley Blue Book values, an automated RMV system assigned them a default value of $17,000. For example, the owner a new Maserati with a sale value of $325,000 paid the default rate of $382 on a $17,000 vehicle, instead of the $7,312 the owner otherwise would have paid.

The RMV said it had changed its procedures to accurately tax those vehicles.