Consultant clings to DRTSS system

 A South African consultant that worked with Motor Vehicle Spares & Accessories (Movesa) to upgrade the Department of Road Traffic and Safety Services (DRTSS) system, has doubted the handing over of the system anytime soon.

This is against Malawi

 Government’s demand to have the Malawi Traffic Information System (Maltis) handed over to DRTSS. The initial handover year was 2017, but there have been several shifts and five years on, the consultant is still in control.

The failure to handover the system has left Malawi with no other option, but to sue the local firm Movesa and the consultant, according to Attorney General (AG) Thabo Chakaka-Nyirenda.

The consultant, Fischer Consulting, in response to a questionnaire said the handover would be regulated by contractual terms.

An official from the firm, Gerrit Fischer, said: “We cannot at this stage indicate when the system would be handed over to government as you may appreciate that the matter is regulated by contractual terms and conditions that need to be adhered to for the handover to take place.”

He also said it would be speculative at this stage to say whether they are going to defend themselves in court.

“At this stage, until the allegations of failure to fulfil contractual obligations are specified

 to us, our company is unable to appropriately respond to the question,” said the officer when asked to comment on the allegation of breach of the contract.

On the other hand, the AG said the Malawi Government did everything right as per contractual agreement, but Movesa and Fischer Consulting allegedly breached contractual terms.

Initially, the K6.5 billion Maltis upgrading that started in 2015 was expected to be completed in three years.

But five years down the line, according to the Ministry of Transport and Public Works and the AG, the system remains in shambles.

Nonetheless, according to the the Ministry of Transport and Public Works, Malawi Government has paid over K6.2 billion on the project it considers is far from what it envisaged, remaining with K163 million.

And the fact that the system is not yet handed to DRTSS, the South African consultant is controlling it from South Africa.

The AG accuses the developer, Movesa and the consultant of failing to make the system functional to be handed over.

“There are so many inefficiencies with this system. We now remain with only one option after several engagements have failed, to sue the developer and their consultant for breach of the contract,” Chakaka Nyirenda said in an interview.

He said the system cannot interface with other stakeholders such as Malawi Police Service (MPS) and Insurance Association years after the launch to upgrade the system.

The Ministry of Transport and Public Works, in a prepared brief to the AG detailing the system’s failures which Nation on Sunday has seen, writes that Maltis has weaknesses in business rules to control instructor/driving school operations.

It says there were no system’s reports for driving school owner/administration management to enable DRTSS to verify that the insurance operations are in agreement with the user requirements specification document for the Maltis.

The ministry reports that Movesa and Fischer needed to provide relevant reports on motor vehicle insurance cover as the paid insurance premiums reconciliation reports were developed without DRTSS input.

“Module for Maltis management reports is not operational. Instead a web-based system that was delivered as a temporary solution is still being used. [Movesa and Fischer] did not engage DRTSS to develop appropriate reports as required by various system users and management sections.

“[Movesa and Fischer] delivered equipment for Maltis mobile solution. No business case scenarios have been discussed or information provided to DRTSS. In addition, document issuing solutions for card printers and A4 documents have not been provided,” it says.

The ministry further reports that while Movesa and Fischer provided training for front end users on how to operate the various functions in the different modules, management at the

 ministry and DRTSS have not been trained in the Maltis and other subsystems administration functions.

“Technical training provided by [Movesa and Fischer] to DRTSS only focused on software installations [client and server computers] and the high level understanding of Maltis server infrastructure.

“No skills or knowledge has been provided on critical aspects of the system such as databases, software application management (source codes)…[Movesa and Fischer] has provided Maltis installation manuals and high level system design including servers in virtual environments… but [they] have not provided developer level technical documents for Maltis applications, databases [and] security implementations,” it says.

Maltis preceded the old system which was implemented in 1999. The previous system was too rigid to interface with other systems (stakeholders).

The ministry explains the upgraded Maltis was launched on May 27 2015 and was expected to be handed over in June, 2017.

The Maltis upgrade had an initial contract amount totalling 53 868 087.22 South African Rand (about K3.2 billion at the current exchange rate), according to the ministry and in a bid to finalise the contract and prepare for handovers, the ministry through the steering committee met the consultant in November 2017 and January 2019.

“After the November 2017 meeting, due to some outstanding issues, [Movesa and Fischer] agreed to a one year no-cost extension which expired on 30th August, 2018.

“The steering committee then met in September 2018 and further extended the contract to December, 2018 to allow the consultant to finalise all outstanding issues. In January 2019, the steering committee met the contractor and agreed an action plan for a further six months extension up to June 2019

“The ministry invited [Movesa and Fischer] to a meeting scheduled for the 31st January, 2020 to discuss exit strategy for the contract. The consultant indicated through email his unavailability but suggested that instead of meeting, the two parties share notes on the outstanding items and once obligations are met on both sides, system to be handed over by 28th February, 2020,” the ministry says.

The AG said in the interview that despite the consultant calling an amicable settlement on the matter in a letter addressed to the ministry dated December 10 2021, nothing has happened