(Nov 16): Putrajaya has forked out more than RM60 million since September 2012 to the two companies running the controversial Automated Enforcement System (AES).

Transport minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai told Khalid Samad (Amanah-Shah Alam) in a parliamentary reply that the two private firms Beta Tegap Sdn Bhd and Automated Traffic Enforcement System (ATES) Sdn Bhd have been paid a contract service fee totaling RM60,122,080 as of Aug 25 this year.

Beta Tegap was paid RM32,940,496, while ATES received RM27,181,584.

However, Liow did not state what the contract service fee entailed.

He also said AES, which was first implemented in September 23, 2012 had issued a total of 2.15 million summonses as of Sept 30 this year for speeding offences and failure to adhere to traffic rules.

The AES was supposed to be launched nationwide after September 2012, but Putrajaya backtracked on its push to get the automated traffic enforcement system off the ground due to resistance from the opposition and Barisan Nasional (BN) members of parliament.

Under the agreement that was signed in early 2012, Beta Tegap and ATES were to build, operate and maintain the equipment and systems for the AES, to be handed over to the Road Transport Department (RTD) at the end of the five-year concession period.

The two companies had invested a huge sum just in the initial rollout of the AES – setting up of several secure facilities nationwide, including in Sabah and Sarawak, to house the RTD enforcement team and the monitoring system.

After a huge public outcry over the system in 2013, then acting transport minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein announced that a wholly-owned government unit, AES Solutions Sdn Bhd, would take over the management of AES from ATES and Beta Tegap.

English-language daily The Sun recently reported that Putrajaya is looking at writing off more than 1.6 million traffic summonses worth almost RM500 million issued under the AES.

Quoting a source, the report said pending charges against traffic offenders under the AES would most likely be dropped.

The government, the source was reported as saying, was prepared to write off the offences issued during the pilot stages of the enforcement system and move on with the second phase. – The Malaysian Insider