The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has written to Transport Minister Barbara Creecy and the Chairperson of the Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA), to raise concerns about a large public-private partnership tender that was issued over the festive seasons.
The organisation said in a statement on Tuesday that the complex tender, linked to the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act (Aarto), was published on December 8, with a compulsory briefing scheduled shortly after the year-end shutdown period on January 20.
The closing date for bids was February 3, which was later extended to February 13.
“Outa questions whether this late extension meaningfully mitigates the risks created by the original compressed timetable and warns that the process remains rushed for a procurement of this scale, with serious implications for fairness, competition, and transparency,” the organisation said.
It said it was particularly concerned that the tender appeared to outsource core administrative and enforcement-support functions that already existed within government.
“The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), through the Natis platform, already manages national traffic administration systems that interface directly with Aarto processes. Duplicating this capacity through a private contractor risks higher costs, operational complexity, and weakened institutional capability,” Outa said.
The organisation also questioned the appropriateness of introducing private commercial incentives into systems that support traffic infringement enforcement.
“Traffic enforcement is not meant to operate as a profit-driven exercise,” said Outa CEO, Wayne Duvenage.
“When private entities stand to benefit from administrative processes linked to fines, it creates perverse incentives and erodes public trust. That is exactly what Aarto does not need.”
Outa called on the Minister and RTIA to urgently explain the rationale for its procurement approach, to make the business case underpinning it public, and to clarify why existing state capacity was being bypassed.
“Aarto already suffers from a credibility deficit. Pushing through a complex, high-risk outsourcing deal under tight timelines only deepens public suspicion. If this system is to be lawful, trusted, and effective, the procurement process must be beyond reproach,” Duvenage said.
Outa said it would continue to monitor the matter closely and engage with authorities to ensure that traffic enforcement systems served the public interest, not commercial gain.
