THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Legal experts have pointed out that it is legally wrong to pay private companies the fines collected from people on account of AI cameras installed in the state. There is no government investment in this project. The arrangement is that Keltron and the sub-contracted company will share a fixed percentage of the penalty collected.

The Police and the Motor Vehicles Department are the only ones who have the authority to levy fines and deposit them into the treasury, irrespective of the means by which traffic violations are detected, but the Motor Vehicles Department has only the role of a spectator in this scheme. All the work related to this is done in the control room of the Department of Motor Vehicles by the same agencies that installed the AI ​​camera. If someone brings these matters to the attention of the courts, the government will have to answer it.

Contracts are against the Finance Department's order

It has also been revealed that Keltron being awarded the contract to install the AI ​​camera and them subcontracting it to SRIT, is against the order issued by the Finance Department in August 2018. Accredited agencies can award contracts for the purchase of equipment in two ways. Acting as a Project Management Consultancy (PMC) and supplying own equipment.

Accredited agencies should be contracted to supply their own equipment only if they have sufficient expertise. The responsibility for this will be with the concerned department, but the contract was awarded to Keltron, which had no experience in installing cameras, against the order. Once the contract is awarded, at least 50 percent of the equipment supplied should be from an accredited agency. If more than that is procured from a third party, then the contract should not be awarded to the accredited agency. Not even five percent of the cameras and equipment distributed as part of the Safe Kerala project belong to Keltron and the Department of Transport was unaware that Keltron had subcontracted SRIT.

The finance department also ordered that procurement of goods from third parties should be done through transparent bidding. These bidding procedures should also be made available to the concerned department. In case the accredited agency acts as PMC, the final decision on the selection of the third party shall be taken by the concerned department. The order also states that payment to the third party should be made directly by the department. None of this was adhered to in the subcontract issued by Keltron.

"How can the government support a scheme that shares the imposed fines? The AI ​​camera project is completely illegal.

-T Asaf Ali,​

Former Director General of Prosecutions