BMV shifts to state‑provided interpreters after whistleblower claims; committee asks for six‑month report

Deputy Secretary of State Kathy Curtis and Chris Ireland, director of Driver Licence Services, told the Joint Legislative Committee on Government Oversight that the Bureau of Motor Vehicles has changed exam procedures to reduce the risk of fraudulent assistance by interpreters and to improve access.

Curtis said statewide pass rates for noncommercial written exams in 2025 were 72 percent (13,889 tests), and 70 percent among the 2,416 applicants who used interpreters. She explained that interpreters have long been required to complete an MV‑81 oral test attestation form certifying that they did not supply answers. The BMV said it does not record fees paid between applicants and interpreters when interpreters were privately provided.

Following whistleblower complaints and internal reviews from 2019 and 2020 that raised concerns about particular interpreters, the BMV said it conducted an internal review, hired a new chief examiner to evaluate interpreter services, and, effective Feb. 1, began supplying professional interpreters through state contracts and digital testing in eight languages at branch offices. Curtis said the change aims to remove prior relationships between examinees and interpreters that created opportunities for misconduct.

Representative Chad Perkins moved that the committee ask the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to return in six months with a report comparing pass/fail rates for exams taken with and without interpreter services and to send a letter summarizing committee concerns to the Transportation Committee; the motion was seconded and recorded as approved by all present and voting.

Committee members pressed the bureau about why prior concerns in 2019–2020 were not definitively resolved then; Curtis said the earlier investigations highlighted issues but lacked the specific, provable evidence the bureau needed to take administrative or criminal action, and that the February changes are designed to close the identified vulnerabilities.

Quote: “We decided to provide the interpreters ourselves,” Curtis said. “That puts all of this to rest if anything was happening.”

Ending: The BMV will report back in six months with pass‑rate data and a program evaluation of the new interpreter arrangements; the committee also discussed possible legislative options to give the BMV additional administrative tools to hold interpreters or applicants accountable for exam misconduct.