Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe was not informed of the audit on the new electronic national traffic information system (eNaTIS), his spokesperson Collen Msibi said on Sunday.
He said it appeared Radebe had been the last person to be told of the report.
The minister and the Department of Transport were told in December last year that the system would be an ”embarrassment” for the country unless Radebe took action — but even after a report containing shocking findings by the Auditor General was handed to the department in February, the system was still implemented in one fell swoop.
According to a report, obtained by Beeld, the Auditor General warned in December there would be an 80% chance of failure if the migration to the new, R408-million eNaTIS took place all at once. Neither Radebe nor his department made the report public or ever referred to it.
”We would like to reiterate that the minister had not been informed of the report and we have requested a copy … for the minister’s attention,” Msibi said.
”We would assume that the minister will be given an opportunity to study it and comment, without being judged. It is however incorrect to assume that existence of the report meant that the minister had already seen it and deliberately ignored its recommendations.”
According to the Democratic Alliance (DA), the ministry had itself requested the audit.
Msibi went on to say that the Ministry of Transport was ”highly disturbed” by an impression being created that Radebe ”runs a one-man-show in the health and transport portfolios”.
”Is it the DA’s expectation for the minister to now leave his duties and become the project manager of eNaTIS? The minister is not an IT engineer or specialist, but has appointed a service provider to develop and implement this system, and has highly-skilled officials to manage this particular contract, through his guidance.”
Msibi said the department, working closely with the eNaTIS service provider, had been able to diagnose a computer server-capacity problem and had subsequently made huge interventions to resolve it.
”Our staff members are now working extended hours to ensure the reduction of the backlog,” he said.
”Just this weekend, we’ve been able to perform more than 200 000 transactions on the system.” – Sapa