Firearms tracking system debacle
By TMG Editor - 22 October 2014
THE SA Police Service has ducked questions in parliament around a multimillion-rand tender awarded to a company to develop a system to track firearms.
The tender with IT systems company Waymark dates back to 2003. Originally estimated to cost about R42- million, it ballooned to more than R400-million.
The system was supposed to be a hi-tech way to track firearms during their life cycle.
Parliament's police portfolio committee was told yesterday that due to the failure of the system, the SAPS had been unable to meet targets for the marking of firearms using specialist "dot peen" technology.
Police commissioner Riah Piyega said the contract "no longer exists", but there was a dispute with Waymark over outstanding payments. - Bianca Capazorio
