The office of the Attorney General (AG) has kick-started processes that may culminate in an out-of-court settlement with developers of the Malawi Traffic Information System (Maltis), namely Movesa and Fischer Consultant, who have been accused of failing to hand over thhttps://times.mw/attorney-general…-settlement-move/e system to government for five years now.
The system is used by the Directorate of Road Traffic and Safety Services (DRTSS) to, among other things, register motor vehicles and issue certificates of fitness.
In September this year, AG Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda disclosed that his next step to get the system back was to commence litigation against the consultant.
He said, at that time, that his office had started engaging the consultant to hand over the Maltis system in May this year because the contract provided room for discussions and mediation before commencement of litigation.
When asked on the latest development, Nyirenda has told this publication that he has now entered into discussions with the consultant and developer of the system.
“I have been approached by their local lawyer for an out-of-court settlement. We just started discussions,” he said.
The Parliamentary Committee on Transport and Public Infrastructure has since commended the AG’s step in reclaiming the system.
“It is a good step because what we want is closure. The system should be handed over to us,” the committee’s chairperson Uchizi Mkandawire said on Saturday.
The government contracted Movesa and Fischer Consultant to develop Maltis in 2015, with the agreement that the system would be handed over to the government by 2017.
That never happened.
Despite the servers being in Malawi, the system is said to be controlled by the consultant in South Africa.
In August this year, Vehicles Inspection Stations Association cried foul, claiming that the private operators were being disadvantaged as the consultant has been demanding payment for connecting them to the Maltis programme.
Mathews Kasanda is a journalist who holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from University of Malawi (The Polytechnic).
In 2015, Media Institute of Southern Africa awarded him the Best Print Media Education Journalist of the Year accolade.
He joined Times Group Newsroom in September 2019.