Sanral 'pouring money down the drain'

Sanral argues it can recoup some of the cost of communicating with motorists through penalties for late payment.

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The South African Road Agency (Sanral) will spend almost half a billion rand on communication with e-toll account-holders and transgressors, claims the Democratic Alliance.

And much of the R473.2 million the opposition claims Sanral will spend trying to get Gauteng motorists to cough up for e-tolls will be wasted as the agency will not be able to find many defaulters.

This figure is based on documentation provided to the DA by Sanral after a successful Promotion of Access to Information Act application. The amount is assumed to be for the eight-year duration of the contract.

Sanral has hit back, arguing this is a worst-case scenario, and saying it can recover some of the costs by levying penalties on motorists who do not pay within seven days of getting the bill, while most registered motorists have opted to go paperless.

However, the DA's shadow minister of transport, Ian Ollis, argues that Sanral is unlikely to recoup much through extra charges as it will not be able to find motorists. This is due to inaccurate data in the Electronic National Traffic Information System (eNatis) - one of the reasons few traffic infringements are paid.

Compliance with e-toll bills by motorists who have not bought e-tags is expected to be even less than the 12.9% collection rate, since 2008, for fines issued under the Department of Transport's Gauteng pilot of the Administrative Adjudication of Road Offences (Aarto) Act, according to Ollis.

The struggle to track down transgressors will result in both increased operating costs and lower fee recovery, says the DA's shadow transport minister, Ian Ollis.

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As a result, says Ollis, Sanral will be "pouring money down the drain" in a bid to try find motorists that have not bought e-tags, and will have to eventually abandon attempts to get tolls paid if the agency is unsuccessful. "What about those they never find?"

Sanral has indicated that about 600 000 motorists - of the around four million registered cars in Gauteng - have e-tags, although this figure has been questioned by adversaries of the controversial system.

The eNatis system includes registers of motor vehicles, motor trade numbers, temporary and special permits, as well as driving licences and professional driving permits. The Department of Transport awarded the eNatis contract to Tasima, which developed and still operates the system, in December 2001.

Ollis says even if Sanral is more effective, and doubles the collection rate under Aarto, that is still only a low recovery rate of 26%. He says it is unlikely to cost Sanral less than R473.2 million to communicate with motorists.

Most registered motorists do not want paper statements, so Sanral will spend less than the projected R427.2 million, says spokesman Vusi Mona.

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Sanral agreed to provide the DA with all 5 848 pages of the contractual agreements, and the political party received 17 lever-arch folders with tender documents, although some documents were omitted from the submission. These have since been sent to the DA.

The DA's analysis of the e-toll contract between Sanral and the Electronic Toll Collections joint venture shows the total cost of communications for the Transaction Clearance House responsible for the hosting and accuracy of all e-toll accounts is R92.6 million.

The cost of communications for the Violations Processing Centre (VPC), facilitating and ensuring recovering of e-toll fees owed, is R380.6 million. "The increased spending by the VPC forewarns of the struggle to track down transgressors and will result in both increased operating costs and less fees recovered," says Ollis.

Sanral has refuted the DA's "fallacious" claim that it will spend R473.2 million to communicate with e-toll users.

"It is disappointing that the DA goes ahead and issues a statement without seeking clarity from Sanral. Either the DA can't read the documents we sent to them or they are being mischievous. In case of the former, we shall be patient and help the DA to understand and navigate its way through the voluminous documents we gave them last week," says spokesman Vusi Mona.

The amounts quoted by the DA refer to provisional sums in the contract the roads agency has with the service provider. An amount of R427.2 million was provided as a provisional sum Sanral could pay to the service provider, in the worst case scenario, for communication to e-toll account-holders and transgressors.

"However, we can see that at this stage registration trends show that less than 1% of account-holders have indicated that they would like to receive their invoices by mail. The majority have opted for paperless options. This means Sanral will end up spending far less of the provisional figure that projected," says Mona.

Mona adds that the current toll tariff structure allows for an increased toll tariff if users do not pay in seven days. "This allows for the additional administration costs to be absorbed and it also avoids a situation where compliant users subsidise non-compliant users."

However, Wayne Duvenage, chairman of the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa), argues billions of rands will be wasted on the inefficient e-tolling revenue collection process. The expenses related to communication and serving e-toll bills on motorists is another example of the waste of money related to the scheme, he notes.

Outa's legal challenge to the system will be heard in the Constitutional Court in about a month's time.