Government yet to upgrade traffic information system
The Road Transport and Safety Services (RTSS) director James Chirwa has faulted the delay to upgrade the Malawi Traffic Information System (Maltis), saying it is affecting the delivery services at the directorate.
Chirwa told Business News in Lilongwe on Friday that they could have loved to have the upgraded version of Maltis by now because it will make their job easy.
The Maltis version currently in use is outdated and does not have components that could reduce usage of paper at the directorate.
Apparently, companies placed their bids to upgrade the old Maltis have been waiting for over two years to know the preferred bidder due to government’s red tape.
Business News understands that the companies sent their bids to government two years ago but they were surprised when the whole process was halted midway and were asked to resubmit bids.
“Two years ago, we sent to government our bids but somehow we were told to resubmit them and this has affected us badly. This project is very important because if we upgrade the old Maltis, it will help speed up documentation transaction at the road traffic offices and it will reduce congestion at the road traffic directorate,” said a source.
But Chirwa conceded that there have been delays to upgrade the Maltis and it is affecting service delivery.
“It is true that it has almost taken two years to upgrade the system because we need a lot of money and the process is also very rigorous. We could have loved to have this approved version by yesterday but we have been assured that everything is under control and the successful company will be announced shortly,” he said.
Chirwa said once implemented, it will reduce the usage of paper in most transactions at RTD as the organisation will be connected to institutions such banks, Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) and Malawi Police Service.
It is not enough to know the Problem yet we fail to point out the Office or Company that is retrograding development and service delivery!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is campaign time!!!!!!!!!!!
System upgrade will not be done just because it will hamper them from theft. The Road Traffic department is one of the worst in terms of corruption. Waiting for two years is good news for the employee there as it increases their chances of stealing money from Government and the public. Right now the price of Driver’s License is @ K35,000.00 without any driving training at all. Same day service. Do you think these people will accept to upgrade their system? I don’t think so…………. 🙂