AES concession holders stand to gain RM700m a year from traffic summons

October 14, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 14 — A controversial enforcement system introduced last month aimed at cutting down traffic offences has raised eyebrows over the huge profits, an estimated RM700 million a year, the two companies who won the coveted government concession will gain from the pool of settled summons.

ATES Sdn Bhd and Beta Tegap Sdn Bhd, which won recently the contract for the Automated Enforcement System (AES), have also come under fire for claiming between RM600 million and RM800 million as cost to install 831 cameras in traffic hotspots nationwide.

“Does it cost RM600-800 million as claimed by both companies to install the 831 cameras which would cost RM722,000-RM962,000 per camera?” DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng asked in a statement today.

He noted that the project was opposed when it was mooted nearly a decade ago due to the perception of unfair largesse to the concession holders through a three-tiered system paid out from a pool of settled summons.

Lim, a trained accountant who is also Penang chief minister, noted that the companies will gain RM16 for each of the first five million summons paid by traffic offenders in the first tier, resulting in a sum of RM80 million.

The two companies stand to gain up to RM270 million for the second tier, which awards them half of the revenue collected; and 7.5 per cent of the remaining revenue under tier 3, he said.

He had based his calculations on a fine of RM300 imposed on 170 million summons issued in one year, adopting the figures from recent news reports for the first eight days after the AES was launched on September 23.

English daily New Straits Times had reported that 63,558 traffic offences were captured on the AES within those eight days.

The Bagan MP demanded the Transport Ministry fully disclose if the government held an open tender for the concession before handing them out.

“Unless such issues are fully addressed, Malaysian motorists have a right to be angry that cronies of BN have once again benefited fully at the expense of ordinary Malaysians,” he said.