Audit Office Revealed Most of Violations of Traffic Rules Remain Unpunished
By Tea Mariamidze
Wednesday, June 27
Georgia’s State Audit Office (SAO) says there are risks that majority of street rules violations remain unpunished, adding the executive mechanism of fines is also weak.
The State Audit Office study covers the period from January 1, 2016 to January 1, 2018. The audit was carried out at: The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the structural subdivisions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in particular: - Patrol Police Department and its structural units, Territorial Bodies of the Ministry, joint Operations Center, Information-Analytical Department.
A survey conducted in the audit process revealed that drivers frequently or often violate traffic rules but are rarely fined.
The document submitted to the Parliament by the State Audit Office reads that a total of 13.018 traffic accidents occurred in 2016-2017, which resulted in death of 1.098 people and left 18.412 injured. In 1180 cases out of these 13.018 traffic accidents, in which 1.232 people were injured and 22 died, the guilt of particular persons could not be established.
SAO added the proper state agencies fail to effectively reveal the facts of speeding, because the number of radars insufficient and often cannot be used due to technical malfunctions.
Last week SAO stated that along with the absence of sufficient radar speed guns, large number of street surveillance cameras do not work.
The SAO underlined that a number of cameras out of the 1100 installed are technically faulty or do not work at all. As for the remaining cameras, that work, the operators control and monitor only a small part of them.
In order to fully control streets, the MIA needs 3000 smart cameras in total. However, the SAO says only up to 100 cameras have been installed, costing Gel 7.7 million, allocated by the Finance Ministry.
Smart cameras were first activated on November 1, 2017. They detect violations and automatically send information to the Joint Operations Center about vehicles that violated traffic rules.