AES deal biased, no revenue for govt — Loke
The agreement is very biased. The government does not lose anything because it is zero-profit due to the biased agreement.
PUTRAJAYA: The government cancelled the Automated Enforcement System (AES) summonses dating back to 2012 because the deal is biased and the collection of payments brings it no revenue, said Transport Minister Anthony Loke.
He said that based on the agreement signed by the previous government in December 2011 and brought into effect in 2012, the two companies operating the system – ATES Sdn Bhd and Beta Tegap Sdn Bhd – were paid RM16 for every summons issued, limited to 10 million summonses per year.
Furthermore, he said, they were also given 50 per cent of the payments collected (at the rate of RM300), limited to RM540 per year.
In 2016, the government decided to halve the summons rate to RM150 and it was bound to hand over all the proceeds to the two companies, he added.
“The agreement is very biased. The government does not lose anything because it is zero-profit due to the biased agreement,” he said at a press conference here yesterday.
Loke said the government decided to discontinue the contract with the companies that would end at the end of this month because it did not agree that the enforcement should be privatised to the two concession companies.
“Those who made this decision and signed such a lopsided agreement, they were fools to sign this agreement,” he said.
Last Friday, Loke announced that all AES summonses issued after 2012, involving some 3.1 million summonses to the tune of RM435 million, would be cancelled.
Besides, the AES system would also be taken over fully by the Road Transport Department ( JPJ) on Sept 1, after the government decided to discontinue the contracts with the two concessionaires, ATES and Beta Tegap.
He said the two companies had received RM129 million based on the volume of summonses that
Anthony Loke, Transport Minister
had been settled between 2012 and May this year.
Loke said 38 AES cameras were operating fully, seven were in the process of calibration and two were being installed.
“The two companies had reaped profits several times more than their investment which is estimated to be only RM10 million,” he said.
The minister said he could accept criticism from anyone but not from MCA leaders following the cancellation of the AES summonses.
“They (MCA leaders) can say the government was not fair to those who had paid their summonses.
Some of them want me to apologise.
Please use your brains before you talk,” he said and added that it was the former Transport Minister Tan Sri Kong Cho Ha who had signed the agreement.
Loke said that the enforcement of traffic regulations was proceeding as usual despite the cancellation of the AES summonses.
“Don’t think you can drive above the speed limit until the AES enforcement resumes on Sept 1.
This is immature thinking because the enforcement is implemented not just by JPJ and AES but also by the traffic police,” he said.
Loke said he instructed the JPJ director- general last week to inform the police to step up enforcement during the interim period.
“Beginning Sept 1, we will have a new direction and traffic enforcement will be more stringent,” he said.
He also said that the installation of AES cameras was a rigorous process and the location of the cameras was determined by the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS) and the rate of summonses would be announced later. — Bernama