STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX – A new performance audit of the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT), conducted by the Arizona Auditor General, has found alarming issues with Motor Vehicle Division’s (MVD) oversight of third-party service providers, which collectively issue 36 percent of all vehicle titles, registrations, driver licenses, and identification cards issued in the state.
The audit report, which covers data from March to October 2022, outlines that MVD failed to ensure that authorized third-party companies consistently issued vehicle titles, driver licenses, and identification cards only to qualified and authorized individuals and entities, increasing public safety risks such as unsafe drivers, vehicle and identity theft, fraud, and terrorism. The full report is available online here: https://www.azauditor.gov/sites/default/files/23-105_Report.pdf.
State Representative David Cook, Chairman of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, has sent a letter to ADOT Director Jennifer Toth to express urgent concern over the Auditor General’s findings, the implications for the public’s safety, and insisting the agency take immediate corrective action.
“When state agencies outsource their important government functions to third parties, and those third parties fail to meet their legal obligations and are not properly supervised as required by law, Arizonans suffer the consequences,” writes Chairman Cook “In this instance, those consequences are particularly severe and threaten the public safety.”
A copy of Representative Cook’s entire letter is attached and available here: https://bit.ly/3PfD4fT.
David Cook is a Republican member of the Arizona House of Representatives serving Legislative District 7, which includes Pinal, Gila, Coconino, and Navajo Counties. He is Chairman of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee and the House International Trade Committee. Follow him on X/Twitter at @RepDavidCook.
