Separate investigations have been launched into allegations that the national database of traffic offenders had been systematically altered between 1994 and 2004. Tampering with these records is said to have seen one million traffic offences disappear or altered. In a separate story, an internal investigation at the National Road Traffic Department (DGV) has discovered that an undisclosed number of traffic offenders have had their offences, mostly serious transgressions, transferred to innocent drivers.

With the failings at the DGV becoming increasingly more public, the government was this week forced into taking action to discover the source of “alleged anomalies” with traffic offenders’ records.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs has ordered an investigation into “anomalous situations” which it says are related to the “management of traffic fines and the manner in which they are processed”.

This internal investigation follows media reports that PJ criminal detectives had initiated queries of their own following a growing number of complaints regarding alterations to the traffic offenders’ database.

It is estimated that up to one million records, out of a total of nine million, were forged and altered between 1994 and 2004 with the intention of deleting records and the offences they contained.

Government officials said late last week they opted to launch their own investigation after stumbling across “new information”.

In a related development, the DGV has revealed that following an internal investigation in 2003, it found that traffic offenders had had their records transferred to innocent drivers.

In a preliminary DGV report published by Público, it is revealed that “a number of situations were detected in which certain offenders, who had committed minor offences, have had their records tampered with resulting in them being attributed the serious offences of other drivers”.

According to the DGV report, the “errors” in its system occurs when alterations are made to drivers’ records, such as when changing their identity documents or driver’s licence.

Furthermore, the report admits that numerous fines “have been lost in the system, constituting a serious irregularity”.

The report concludes that with these “anomalies”, it is impossible to verify the true record of offenders, such as whether the driver is a first-time offender or a repeat offender.

Investigators who compiled this preliminary report concluded that they were unaware of any attempts by the DGV to resolve the flaws that had been detected in the national database of traffic offenders.