KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 18 — Expect more delays in the coming days if you plan to enter into any transaction involving the Road Transport Department (RTD).

RTD’s mySikap, launched on Nov 1, was designed to handle more than 1,000 different transactions including change of vehicle ownership, renewal of licenses and road tax and payment of summons. However, the system was not tested thoroughly before it was rolled out.

RTD director-general Datuk Seri Ismail Ahmad admitted the system has caused more problems to his department and the public.

“The system ran smoothly when we tested it (during a week-long pilot study) in Malacca and Perlis (last month). When mySikap was introduced nationwide, we were unable to cope with the high number of users, especially in the Federal Territory,” said Ismail.

He, however, was not forthcoming when asked why the system was not tested in Kuala Lumpur. He said the system faced problems during peak hours, making it impossible for transactions to be performed as the server was unable to handle the large amount of transactions.

“The system will usually fail from 10am to 11am and 3pm to 4pm. We are aware of the problems and we have taken immediate measures to rectify them temporarily, including opening our offices seven days a week.” 

“I urge the public to write to the state director to request temporary documentation if they are unable to renew their road tax in time.”

Car dealers are also facing the brunt of the new system as the delays in the transfer of vehicle ownership will cause their Puspakom inspection certificate to expire.

Ismail explained the data received from Puspakom had been lagging due to technical errors.

“The system is unable to detect certain information and it takes a while to reconcile the information from the previous Sikap system to mySikap.”

Ismail said the system had not been fully implemented at post offices.

“We are concentrating on ironing out issues within RTD. We are looking at a complete upgrade of the system in post offices by next year.”

He said transactions could still be done through MyEG as the online portal’s system had been upgraded to cater to mySikap.

The director-general said RTD had upgraded its server and CPU on Friday to manage the amount of transactions, especially in the Federal Territories where more than 1.5 million vehicle registrations take place every year.

“Since the upgrade, the system has improved compared to two weeks ago.”

Ismail insisted the system would be running smoothly by next month.

“I hope the public will be patient for the next two weeks.”