Speed cameras project cancelled

He said the contract agreement was supposed to have been signed by the minister of Finance as the only office legally mandated to commit the country to financing and not the chief executive officer of RTSA.

Mr Kafwaya said the project implementation had to be refined for it to respond to the issues the transport and communication sector was facing.

He said there were a lot of financing issues in the contract.

“This is why the Council of Ministers in charge recommended for its cancellation. The Speed Camera project was not abandoned in a scandalous manner, we recommended for a cancellation in a normal manner.

“It was just not properly seated and we needed to make it more comprehensive,” he said during the Sunday Interview programme on ZNBC.

Mr Kafwaya said that the ministry recommended the cancellation of the project to improve the system and to come up with opportunities to improve the country’s economic and social environment.

And on reports that the money collected from the project was going in the wrong account, Mr. Kafwaya explained that the statement did not mean that it was stolen but that it was not approved by the treasury.

“Yes, the money from the project was going in the wrong account but that is not important, it was a very insignificant component of the entire process, the account was wrong in the sense that it was not approved by the Ministry of Finance,” he said.

Mr Kafwaya said there was going to be nothing wrong with the money collected from the speed cameras being deposited in the said account if it had been approved by the Ministry of Finance.

He clarified that the money was not stolen, the only problem was the lack of approval of the account by the Ministry of Finance.

Kapsch TrafficCom’s joint venture with Zambian Lamise Trading Limited was awarded a nation-wide concession contract for the design, installation and operation of systems and solutions for traffic surveillance, vehicle speed enforcement, vehicle inspection and vehicle registration.