Tickets for Aarto amid state body’s poverty plea

Just weeks after proclaiming itself ready to roll out the government’s long-delayed Aarto traffic fine management system, the big-spending Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA) said it would have to outsource the project to the private sector — at a further cost believed to be about R1.2bn. Claiming it is too cash-strapped to do the work itself, the RTIA — which operates from plush Midrand headquarters costing R52m a year to rent —missed its third deadlineto implement Aarto on December 1. Seven days later, it published a tender for a private company to implement a ”turnkey project”.

The agency has long been accused ofextravagant spending and mismanagement. It has cost taxpayers R2bn since its inception in 2014, with little to show for it.