Counting the cost of traffic cameras

One year after the new digital traffic cameras became operational, the Israel Police decline to disclose any information about them, such as how many reports have been issued or if they have influenced the number of accidents. However, project contractor Malam Team Ltd. (TASE: MLTM) has provided some numbers in its financial report for 2012. The company reports that, by the end of 2012, it installed 42 of the 60 cameras ordered by the Police, and that 20 more cameras will be installed by mid-2013. These figures do not include dummy cameras.

Malam Team will receive NIS 335 million for the project, and NIS 22 million a year in operating fees - NIS 400,000 per camera per year.

With the election of a new Knesset and the formation of a new government, "Globes" would like to take the opportunity to ask the Knesset Finance Committee and Economic Affairs Committee, which will soon debate the 2013 budget, and to ask Ministry of Finance officials, who are turning over every stone in a search for more revenues, whether this outlay could have been deducted from the budget and the resources used for other purposes. If anyone at the Ministry of Finance believes that the fines collected by the new cameras will help fill the budget hole, they are wrong. Give the law enforcement authorities the chance, and they will use the proceeds, through legislation, for themselves. This process is already underway.

"Globes" would also like to know what effect, if any, has the new enforcement system had on traffic accidents on the roads where the cameras have been installed. The Police have the data to know if there has been a dramatic drop in the number of accidents, and any statistics student can correlate the number of reports with the number of accidents. But the Police and the Ministry of Public Security, despite promises of transparency, are keeping the data to themselves.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 7, 2013