Tickets for Aarto amid state body’s poverty plea

Cash-strapped RTIA seeks private ‘turnkey’ partner for traffic fine management system as watchdog warns of profit-driven incentives

The Road Traffic Infringement Agency denies outsourcing its mandate but admits urgent need for private capital as critics warn of “perverse incentives” and profit from fines.
The Road Traffic Infringement Agency denies outsourcing its mandate but admits urgent need for private capital as critics warn of “perverse incentives” and profit from fines. (Supplied)

Just weeks after proclaiming itself ready to roll out the government’s long-delayed Aarto traffic fine management system, the big-spending Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA) said it would have to outsource the project to the private sector — at a further cost believed to be about R1.2bn.

Claiming it is too cash-strapped to do the work itself, the RTIA — which operates from plush Midrand headquarters costing R52m a year to rent — missed its third deadline to implement Aarto on December 1. Seven days later, it published a tender for a private company to implement a ”turnkey project".

The agency has long been accused of extravagant spending and mismanagement. It has cost taxpayers R2bn since its inception in 2014, with little to show for it.

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