Tide turns at traffic department

Number of fines issued in recent months triples, bringing in millions

THE beleaguered traffic department in Nelson Mandela Bay is said to be turning the tide, with the number of traffic fines issued tripling in recent months, bringing in millions of rands.

This is in stark contrast to its performance in recent years, when the safety and security department continuously fell short of its revenue collection targets.

The department also spent 11 months of last year unable to process fines due to a shutdown of its computer system.

This occurred after the metro appointed new service provider Mavambo Intelligent Transport Solutions in April last year. They battled to decode information on the software system used by the previous company, Traffic Management Technologies (TMT).

The contract ended in December last year and TMT was reappointed in January.

An audit report of the embattled department – spanning about three years – said the contract bungle was due to a lack of proper planning and contract management.

The report, in the safety and security committee agenda, was supposed to be discussed last Thursday. However, the meeting was postponed.

It highlights internal control deficiencies in the department, resulting in inaccurate financial information.

“A proper assessment was not performed to ensure the new service provider had the required capability to render the service,” the report says.

-Rochelle de Kock