Traffic information system

[Yvonne]

From IOL TODAY:

The contract of Tasima, the consortium that had engineered the troubled electronic national traffic information system (eNatis), would be extended, Mpumi Mpofu, director-general of transport, said yesterday.

The system has caused frustration among people anxious to renew their vehicle registrations. Mpofu said the government procurement system included a built-in 15 percent escalation of the R400 million contract price to take care of unforeseen crises, and this would be used to work on eNatis. The contract was due to expire this month.

Contractors worked at the weekend to speed up the communications system, said eNatis project officer Werner Koekemoer, who expected it to run smoothly from now on.


Transport minister Jeff Radebe said eNatis held great promise for the future. - Michael Hamlyn

This article first appeared in Business Report

Am I missing something here?

The system did not function - surely no additional financial reward should be paid to the contractors?

Yvonne

[duncan drennan]

The system did not function - surely no additional financial reward should be paid to the contractors?

Maybe that is a bit harsh? There have certainly been implementation problems, but it doesn't mean the system does not work, or is not good. Whoever handled the switch over, from old to new, should be fired though...

[Dave A]

For R400 million I'm trying to imagine just how big and complex this installation really is. I'm assuming that includes hardware....

But that is one heck of an IT bill. It's gotta rival Bill Gate's "intelligent home".

[Yvonne]

I accept your point of view, being in the industry you are more likely to know more than I.

A project of this magnitude should not "Reward" failure.
Consider if you will the domino affect of any project, of any size, with the identical outcome.
For example: Gautrain
Infrastructure for 2010
Schools, clinics and Hospitals


Yvonne

[duncan drennan]

I hear you Yvonne. For R400mil you expect it to work. No work, no pay...

[Dave A]

First, let's look at the alleged problem. The server(s) just ain't up to the job.

What happens from there really depends on the nature of the contract.

If this was a turnkey contract, then price agreed is the final price paid upon delivery of an appropriate working product. A serverside or software issue would be the contractor's problem. However, needing additional workstations above the original spec. quantity would be at the goverment's expense.

If, however, the contract wasn't turnkey, and the spec. was defined in the tender and met by the provider, it's whoever set the spec. that should be in for the high jump.

And given the highly technical nature I'm pretty sure that spec. would have been outsourced....

[RKS Computer Solutions]

allrighty then....

Supply of 4 servers, all 4 being backups for each other, load balancing, fibre optic communication channels between them...

4 times 1mb Hellkom ADSL line, goverment can use their influence to get it bumped to 4mb each, plus 2times isdn lines for backup...

Total cost for hardware... 2mill

Software: Joomla, free... get it here, http://www.joomla.org (example on my main site, click my logo)

Back-end scripting and application programming cost, rough estimate at 100k..

Total cost, 2.1mill...

So it's safe to say the other 399.79 mill has gone in Mercs, Beemers, and nice chandeliers to go with the new homes bought for those involved.... There is no way that a system could cost 400mill, unless our goverment has picked up tips from the Americans about an ashtray costing $37.50 and a sheet of paper costing $3.25, all in the name of funneling money elsewhere...

[Dave A]

There are a few things to add to the list.

Add cost of end user terminals and printers, cable installation, hookup, travel and accomodation costs (the installation is country wide)... based on (my wild guestimate of) about 2000 end user terminals?

A different approach, but that works out to roughly R200 000.00 per terminal.

[RKS Computer Solutions]

The 400mill didn't include new terminals/etc... As far as I know, having some contact with goverment, the new system was put in place because local servers in every city could just be uploaded with the new terminal software for the dumb-terminals to work from...

The upgrade was put in place knowing that the current systems would only need the upgrade of a local server (which could be done remotely) and all the terminals would automatically connect and start with the new software...

Figure that out....

[Dave A]

Sounds like somebody must have made a little bit of money out of all this.

[Dave A]

Opposition demands answers

Opposition parties on Friday demanded answers on the troubled electronic national traffic information system (eNaTIS), following allegations the Auditor General had warned of problems before the system was introduced.

The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) said it has urgently tabled questions in Parliament to Transport Minister Jeff Radebe, following media reports that revealed that the Auditor General had warned the government in December about shortcomings in eNaTIS, said MP Koos van der Merwe, the IFP's chief whip.

"We have been keeping a close eye on the crisis that has unfolded over the past four weeks relating to eNaTIS ... that has cost government and the tax payer a staggering R408-million," said Van der Merwe.

"The IFP is alarmed by reports that Minister Radebe had been warned by the Auditor General that the system was doomed for failure. In fact, the Auditor General stated in his final report in February of this year that he was 80% sure that the system was going to fail. But despite this warning, they still went ahead with implementation, which is totally unacceptable."

The IFP will ask the minister about the tender process and shareholders of Tasima, which developed the system.

The Democratic Alliance complained that officials at Gauteng vehicle-licensing centres are now forbidden to talk to journalists or elected public representatives.

"Whereas before, licensing officials talked freely about the problems they were experiencing with eNaTIS, now they are refusing to talk, and are obviously in fear for their jobs," said MPL James Swart, the party's Gauteng spokesperson on transport.

"This leads to the obvious question: If eNaTIS is working at 95% efficiency as claimed by transport officials, why is nobody allowed to actually see the system in operation?"

Swart said Radebe and the Gauteng transport minister need to fix the situation. "The department is on the ropes and its credibility is in shreds."
full story from M&G here

[RKS Computer Solutions]

"This leads to the obvious question: If eNaTIS is working at 95% efficiency as claimed by transport officials, why is nobody allowed to actually see the system in operation?"

No one will ever see this system in operation if you hear the stories doing their rounds... Public members in Witbank, Mpumalanga staged a sit-in after being told the system was offline again and that they would have to return later... It ended up with the head of the Traffic apartment swearing at the public and the police being called in, to which the public still refused to leave the building until their names were written on a list for a first-help basis the following morning...