Crying foul over contract for traffic speed cameras

By Teoh El Sen - Free Malaysia Today,

FMT EXCLUSIVE PETALING JAYA: A sophisticated speed camera to nab traffic offenders has snapped its first victim – the Ministry of Transport.
The ministry is about to award a contract for the nationwide implementation of the Automated Enforcemen System (AES) -- a state-of-the art device to catch offenders -- but a local company is crying foul.
Tess Capital Sdn Bhd, an E-road technology solutions company, claimed that the ministry is all set to announce the recipients of the contract -- Beta Tegap Sdn Bhd and Commercial Circle (M) Sdn Bhd.
“We feel we have been sidelined,” said Tess Capital executive director Soh Joon Hang. He added that seven companies have bid for the contract and only the two are likely to get the nod.
He said he came to know about the impending outcome by sources close to the ministry.
Soh added that he had lodged a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission on March 25 this year, alleging abuse of power and "manipulation" by the Road Transport Department (RTD) in the tender evaluation exercise for the AES.
“MACC has not updated us on the progress of its investigation... the whole thing is shrouded in secrecy... until today we do not know what happened...” said Soh.
He said the trial demonstration was also questionable.
“One of our engineers from Australia working with us was present during the live demo in 2007 and based on his observation, the whole exercise was deemed 'selective and subjective'.”
“It seemed as though we were intentionally sidelined... the RTD had already made up its mind before the demo was held,” said Soh, adding that he was told Tess Capital scored the highest in accuracy during the trial run.
Home-grown technology
Soh said the seven companies, including Tess Capital, conducted the demonstration of their AES during the tender process in June 2007.
“Our AES is a home-grown technology whereas the AES of the other companies is based on foreign technology,” he said.
“Now, why is the ministry awarding the contract to these two companies? We feel we are equally qualified and capable of operating the system though our technology is home-bred,” he added.
The AES was mooted four years ago and the then transport minister Ong Kee Keat had said it was only last year that the ministry had ironed out some wrinkles in the system.
The system is widely used in some developed countries like the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Basically, the AES comprises cameras installed at accident-prone areas and traffic light junctions.
The devices are able to detect speeding vehicles and those who beat the red light.
It is understood that the entire installation cost would come to about RM700 million.
Call for review
A disappointed Soh urged the government to review the tender process for the AES. “We are not accusing anyone of anything. We are just saying that we have developed our own technology and we feel we are equally good, if not better, than our competitors. So why not give us a chance? If you can award the contract to two companies, why not three?" asked Soh.
“The government should be proud of our achievement. It should support us. We could stimulate the local economy and generate more jobs in the small and medium enterprises. We can start with the home market and later export to other countries,” said Soh.
He added that other countries using the AES usually supported their local technology, citing Sagem (France), Redflex (Australia), Robot Visual Systems (Germany), Getso (the Netherlands) and Sensys (Sweden). These countries later exported their products.
Soh said Tess Capital was officially approved as AES supplier by the New South Wales government after it had passed a stringent 18-month trial in 2008.
Tess Capital was formed in 2004 and later given an MSC (Multimedia Super Corridor) status a year later.
RTD director-general Solah Mat Hassan reportedly said the new system would monitor the traffic conditions on the roads, including whether motorists were flouting traffic rules, speeding or beating the red light.
Solah said the AES would be categorised under three systems – portable, fixed and mobile.
However, Soh pointed out that there have been negative reports of the foreign AES technology, namely the German Robot GMBH and Australian Redflex, while Tess Capital was new and relatively free of complaints.
For example, in 2005 Cyprus reportedly complained that the Robot cameras were plagued with problems and planned to cancel its contract with Robot Visual Systems.
Even in the United States, the city of Scottsdale, Arizona, was forced to cancel some 1,964 summonses in 2005 after Redflex had accidentally made a software change which removed the date, time, and speed data from the summonses.
In 2006, Australia also complained that the AES installed in Adelaide encountered glitches with the Robot cameras, with 19 of them found to be faulty.
In the same year, The Daily Telegraph in Sydney reported that there were inaccuracies in the speed readings of the AES cameras supplied by its local company Redflex. Consequently, the government had to refund several millions to alleged traffic offenders.