Driving licences and vehicle registration certificates: service suspended
For the past two months, the Collectivité’s departments have not been issuing driving licences or vehicle registration certificates. For the past two weeks, it has been impossible to submit a vehicle registration application. Why is this? The question was raised at the Territorial Council meeting on 27 June.
Regional councillor Marie-Dominique Ramphort, referring to “problems in the vehicle registration and driving licence department over the past two months”, asked the President about the solutions being considered to remedy the situation. Thierry Verres, Deputy Director-General for Security and Public Order at the Collectivité, provided a response, seeking to reassure the council: “For the time being, there is no longer any protection against cyber-attacks for business applications (computer software specifically designed to meet the needs of a particular field). We cannot use them without jeopardising the Collectivité’s encrypted network. The aim is to strengthen this security, and for the time being we cannot access the applications without risking a cyberattack. This is a temporary situation, which will be resolved quickly.” He reported that the situation had been ongoing for just two weeks, adding that “this is not a question of resources”.
What are the consequences for the public?
It would seem, however, that the situation is more complex, because when residents of the territory are asked, some have been waiting for their documents for much longer: since March for a simple driving licence replacement, and the same wait for the issue of a driving licence obtained back in February. Upon arriving at the reception desk of the licensing department on Wednesday, one member of the public reported that he had been told in a hushed tone that the problem was due to a payment issue with the IT service provider, and more explicitly that a return to normal is not expected until September. For the past fortnight, it has also been impossible to register a vehicle.
Only this Thursday did the Collectivité issue a press release ‘regarding a technical incident that is currently preventing the issuance of certain administrative documents’. The statement specifies that “applications currently on hold will be processed as soon as access to the relevant software systems is restored” and that “the Collectivité’s teams are fully mobilised to restore services as quickly as possible”. No date has been given.
In the meantime, as the summer season gets underway, some people will have to change their holiday plans. How can you hire a vehicle outside Saint-Martin without a valid driving licence? For car dealers, getting vehicles onto the road is a real headache, because even if insurers play ball and agree to issue insurance policies, the vehicles will be on the road without number plates. The Prefecture’s departments were clearly unaware of this issue, but for its part, the gendarmerie assures us that the police will exercise discretion during road checks.
We tried to understand the extent of the problem by contacting the company that provides IT services on behalf of the local authority, but they declined to respond. It would appear that another company, based outside the territory, is responsible for managing data protection…
A belated statement that explains nothing and gives no date for the resumption of this service… once again, the average citizen is left in an absurd administrative situation.
