Good Party accuses City of Cape Town of wasting R24 million on failed fleet management system

The Good Party has raised grave concerns regarding what it claims is a substantial misallocation of public funds, accusing the City of Cape Town of wasting R24 million on a Fleet Management System (FMIS) that ultimately failed to deliver results despite years of funding.

In a statement, the party said the system was launched in 2018, under the leadership of the previous Director of fleet management, Bevan Van Schoor, and the FMIS was marketed as the modernisation of the City’s fleet operations.

"It was intended to seamlessly integrate with the existing SAP Plant Maintenance system (SAP PM) to improve efficiency but instead became a costly failure after remaining unimplemented by 2022," said Good Party City of Cape Town Councillor, Roscoe Palm.

Palm explained that FMIS is a software system that allows organisations to efficiently manage their fleet of vehicles by tracking their location, performance, maintenance needs, fuel consumption, and driver behaviour, providing real-time data through a centralised platform.

"However, fundamental IT infrastructure, management protocols, and operational processes necessary for its success were never properly established," said Palm.

"The attempt to integrate the FMIS with SAP PM led to the permanent loss of approximately 30% of historical data, compromising the accuracy and integrity of the remaining system records." 

Palm said there are 120 Samsung tablets, purchased in 2021 for the project, that remain unused or are being used out of scope.

"Despite its non-functionality, the City of Cape Town continued to fund the FMIS project for five years, accumulating an astronomical R24 million price tag, having realised none of its intended outcomes. The MMC for Corporate Services Alderman Theresa Uys must account for the fruitless and wasteful of a vanity project that has served no function or purpose," said Palm.

Responding to the allegations, MMC Uys explained that FMIS was developed as an integrated solution to maintain accurate Fleet Management data and information and it was not an upgrade.

"The project was successfully completed, and the system was implemented across all the fleets within the City, namely Corporate Fleet, Water, Electricity and Solid Waste," she said.

Uys denied that any data was lost when integrating FMIS, "the system was developed in collaboration with the City’s IS and T department to ensure compliance with their strict protocols and governance to ensure data integrity."

She said the system was properly researched, with inputs from officials across the City’s fleets and the project followed the process of approvals by the various governance structures within the City.

When asked how much was spent on the project, Uys said the City no longer shares the budget information for specific projects to mitigate external threats to such projects.

sinenhlanhla.masilela@iol.co.za

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