The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) has responded to a recent report by the Auditor General which claimed that the agency had lost control of its Transport Integrated Management System (TIMS).
In a statement on Wednesday, 23 July, the NTSA clarified that it holds the complete intellectual property rights to TIMS, a central platform crucial to all of the authority's digital services.
"In response to media reports that NTSA has no control over its system, the authority wishes to clarify that the system is fully owned and controlled by NTSA, with complete intellectual property (IP) rights vested in the Authority," the statement read.
This clarification follows a report by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu which suggested that the authority had outsourced the key functions of the TIMS system to private developers.
In her 2024 audit report, Gachungu stated that there is no formal contract for TIMS, and the system was moved to the e-Citizen platform in March 2023, which prevents the NTSA from controlling or managing it effectively.
During the audit, Gachungu said that she found that the system cannot generate detailed transaction reports nor can it produce a full list of all license and registration applications or expected revenue
But in a rejoinder, NTSA explained that its IT framework is built on a Zero Trust Network Architecture, which means access to the system is strictly restricted to authenticated and authorised users only.
The system, according to NTSA is integrated with the eCitizen platform to provide a Single Sign-On (SSO) login experience for users, as well as to facilitate payment processing and revenue reporting.
Despite front-end operations such as logins and payments being handled by e-Citizen, the NTSA reiterated that backend works, including data processing, and system operations, are conducted within NTSA’s infrastructure.
In a bid to maintain system reliability and security, NTSA revealed its ICT personnel were consistently subjected to continuous professional training to stay up to date with the ever-changing digital landscape.
Besides the training, NTSA emphasised that it was proactive in maintaining updates on its systems to meet operational needs of the transport sector to ensure uninterrupted services to the public.
The TIMS platform is crucial since it enables Kenyans to carry out essential functions such as vehicle registration, renewal of driving licenses, and booking of vehicle inspections.
