Drivers do not smile on your way home! The road cameras are not watching you! At the meeting held on Thursday, the House Legal Committee decided to proceed to a new invitation to tender for the road cameras, since part of the equipment that was installed by the company that won the tender was not the one provided in the contract. Cameras will, therefore, come into operation in a year. “The fact that we did not accept the new type of cameras means that we will re-invite to tender. We will not receive the movable cameras either because they have to be compatible to the steady ones”, Chairman of the Committee, Ionas Nicolaou stated.

The government is responsible

Mr. Nicolaou criticized the government for not making provision against the possible receipt of the new type of cameras when the tender would be accepted or the cameras would be received. “The government was not prepared for this and the cameras cannot come into operation at the current stage”, he added.

Responding to the question when was the last invitation to tender, Mr. Nicolaou said that it was two years ago. “It seems that the specifications were based on the previous type of camera and no market research was probably carried out to ascertain whether this type of camera will be improved and new models will appear in the market”, he noted.

Mr. Nicolaou also said that the government should be aware of whether the factory would cease the production of that type of camera. “The factory had probably announced that it would cease the production of that camera, since they usually give a long notice for high technology goods”.

More than that “the picture taking and their use has not been examined by the Personal Data Commissioner yet”.

Their cost stands at £4.3 million.