Half a billion ringgit backlog in AES traffic offences may be written off

Since prosecution of offences recorded by the Automated Enforcement System (AES) was temporarily suspended in 2012, over 1.91 million AES summons have accumulated since September 2012 to April 20 this year creating a headache for authorities over how to resolve the backlog of outstanding fines.

Recently news has emerged that the authorities are considering cancelling the outstanding fines to allow the government to move on and implement Phase 2 of the traffic enforcement system.

“The massive number of outstanding court cases under AES phase one is like monkeys on the government’s back. We need to get it off now to avoid AES becoming a sunken ship,” said a senior government official, reports The SunDaily today.

“The first party role to gather the evidence should have been by police or Road Transport Department enforcement officers and not private company staff. This is the cause of a legal setback.

"Action under the pilot stage is plagued by a technicality arising from the evidence gathering process which was not done by enforcement officers. The first party at the AES control centres, who had collated the high resolution photos of the alleged traffic offences, were staff of private companies," the source had explained why the over half billion ringgit in accumulated fines is effectively unenforceable.

Of the 1.91 million AES summonses issued from September 2012 to April 30 this year, only 264,750 compounds amounting to RM76,647,750 have been paid.

Earlier media reports had put the outstanding amount from the unpaid summons at RM494 million.

The frozen court cases have been identified as a major stumbling block to the execution of the second phase of AES which will be conducted by agencies under the Transport Ministry.

"The second AES rollout covering 350 locations by first quarter of 2016 will be like opening a new page. This time the government will make it right," the official said.

According to a report by The Edge Financial Daily in August this year, the Automated Enforcement System (AES) is all set to be “rerolled out soon” quoting a statement by Tan Sri Lodin Wok Kamaruddin, deputy chairman-cum-managing director of Boustead Holdings who is also the chief executive of Armed Forces Fund Board (LTAT).