Reported By Isaac Salima:
Malawi is still struggling to take over management of the Malawi Transport Information System (Maltis) as, six years down the line, South Africa-based firms that operate the system are refusing to hand it over to the government.
Maltis servers handle all essential services of the Department of Road Traffic and Safety Services (DRTSS) and have been run by South Africa-based companies Motor Vehicle Spares and Accessories (Movesa) and Fischer Consulting.
Upon expiry of the contract with the government, the firms were, in 2017, told to hand over its management to Malawi but the companies have not done so.
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Attorney General (AG) Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda admitted that the government is trying everything to take over management of the system.
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“The challenge has been that the contractors are refusing to hand over the system, and all other equipment, to us. Since this is a technical ICT [Information Communications and Technology] issue, government officials well-versed in it are working with ICT Association [of Malawi who are] trying to offer some solutions. We are hopeful that we will be successful in getting the system,” he said.
With the firms continuing to manage the system, the AG fears that the country could be losing revenue as there are chances that some vehicles are dubiously being registered and evading import duty.
“In this case, we have a situation where people buy vehicles in South Africa, register them there while they bear Malawian registration names and come here as if duty has already been paid. The other thing is that there is nothing we can do with the system, in terms of improving it,” the AG said.
Chakaka Nyirenda was quick to say that it has been a learning point on how to award such contracts.
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“This is a contract that was not properly drafted. It was given to a firm that had no expertise and it had to look for another one to assist it in implementation. What should have happened was to get ICT experts here in Malawi who could have partnered with these firms. The mistake was done at the procurement stage. What we also saw was that payments were done according to time, [and] not what was delivered,” he said.
Chakaka Nyirenda expressed hope that, by December this year, they will have taken over the system.
He further said they have been consulting legal minds to see how the issue can be resolved using laws.
Movesa Director Mohsin Salim said his firm’s partnership with Fischer ended almost two years ago and that officials at Fischer were better placed to comment on the matter.
Fischer Consults General Manager Gerrit Fischer did not respond to our phone calls, let alone WhatsApp messages.
This is not the first time for the AG to express reservations over the administration of Maltis.
In February this year, the government legal advisor urged DRTSS to investigate issues that Black Business Indigenous Network raised, to the effect that other players in the industry were failing to access the system.
The development comes a month after the Parliamentary Committee on Transport and Public Infrastructure directed DRTSS to hand over the system to the Malawi Government.
“We, therefore, recommend that government should, through DRTSS, ensure that Movesa and Fischer Consultants must stop administering the Maltis because that is the responsibility of the directorate.
“We also recommend that Movesa and Fischer Consultants should stop directly engaging operators of vehicle inspection stations on Maltis issues because the operators are agents of government through the DRTSS,” committee chairperson Enock Phale told Parliament when presenting the report.
When contacted Sunday, Phale said they are still interested in seeing the issue come to its logical conclusion.
“Therefore, committee members will follow up on the issue,” Phale said.
Meanwhile, ICT expert Bram Fudzulani, who is ICT Association of Malawi former leader, said it is possible for the government to abandon the firms.
He, however, said there are other issues to be considered, citing DRTSS’s capacity to handle the system.
“We can only hope that they [DRTSS] have necessary skills and capacity to handle the system. If the vendor were to come today and hand over the system, has the DRTSS developed capacity to handle the complexities of the system?” Fudzulani said.
In August this year, DRTSS Director Andrew Sandula said the issue of Maltis handover was being handled by the office of the AG. Last year, Maltis servers crashed in the country and DRTSS was forced to fly developers into the country to work on the system.
