The report, released yesterday, said the VEP system was still at the provisional acceptance test stage, which meant that enforcement activities to monitor the movement of foreign vehicles into the country could not be carried out.

According to the report, up till the date of auditing between June and July this year, only seven or 30.4% of the modules had been completed out of 23. Of the 1,864 units of equipment, only 1,578 (84.7%) were successfully installed.

The road charge collection system and VEP project come under the transport ministry and Road Transport Department, which act as the implementation agency in imposing a road charge of RM20 per entry for foreign-registered vehicles.

The report also found obvious weaknesses in the appointment of contractors, which was made by direct negotiations and contradicted the decision of the Technical and Financial Committee.

There was also uncertainty over the issue of software licensing renewal, costing RM7.82 million.

The report made eight recommendations to overcome the weaknesses in the system, including identifying the incompetence of the system; taking immediate action to avoid impairing government revenue collection; improving the level of monitoring the contractors’ work; and coordinating with the relevant agencies so that the RC and VEP systems will be fully completed before Dec 31.