RMV malfeasance paints one very ugly picture

Things at the RMV are as bad as we feared. So negligent were employees that thousands of license infractions that could lead to suspensions were never processed.

As the Herald’s Mary Markos reported, new findings turned up more egregious information.

In the fifth report based on an internal investigation into the records scandal at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, MassDOT outlines the findings of the state’s license data compared to the National Driver Registry. Of the over 5.2 million drivers in Massachusetts, 166,317 drivers were identified as having incomplete information. Of those, 4,724 were identified as potentially open convictions and suspensions concerning “serious violations” that belong to a specific driver.

So far, 869 drivers have been suspended through this data comparison process.

Officials believe that at least 1,686 Massachusetts drivers committed serious violations. MassDOT has updated those records, according to the report, and issued 720 subsequent suspensions.

Information on a few thousand additional drivers still needs to be verified.

Additionally, the Herald reported yesterday that the Connecticut notification about an OUI arrest that should have suspended Volodymyr Zhukovskyy’s license was opened by an RMV employee who did nothing about it, according to a preliminary report from a thirdparty auditing company.

The 60-page preliminary report from Grant Thornton, an outside firm hired by the state to investigate the records scandal at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, revealed incriminating details about multiple employees who knew about unprocessed license convictions and did nothing about them.

According to the report, an RMV employee actually clicked on a work item, resulting in a display of Zhukovskyy’s driving record in ATLAS. The employee lingered on that display for approximately 7 seconds, before he exited without making any changes. He did not bring the issue to anyone else’s attention, the report found.

The amount of negligence and carelessness, if not malicious malpractice that must have been at play at the registry to create this massive failure is incalculable. As we’ve written previously, we believe that wholesale staffing changes need to take place at the MassDOT and the RMV.

Agencies within our state government need to operate with real oversight, transparency and accountability. These are not just words bandied about in the spirit of friendly guidance. These are safeguards that are put in place to ensure fidelity in the process. These are safeguards that can sometimes save lives. When these very safeguards are abandoned for whatever reason, the result can be the loss of lives.

We’ve seen that nightmare play out. It is time for a different and far better RMV.

Finally, if the governor of Massachusetts was aware of the violations situation at the RMV before it all came to light, he owes the people of the commonwealth a full and fair explanation as to why the processing of those violations was not made an immediate priority.

Many questions remain and many of those questions can be answered by those at the RMV, MassDOT and the Baker administration. We need those answers immediately. Since they are slow in coming from the executive branch it is up to the legislature to conduct its oversight responsibilities.