Silicon Mountain Software Engineer Develops App to Combat Corruption at Cameroon Tollgates
Silicon Mountain Software Engineer Develops App to Combat Corruption at Cameroon Tollgates
Buea – A software has been developed by a young Cameroonian software engineer Frankline Ekombe, to help authorities combat corruption at Cameroon tollgates.
The Automatic Tollgate System (ATS) was unveiled in Buea recently by Ekombe who is CEO of Premium Enterprise Software Configuration of Manual Systems (PEFSCOM). The drive to develop ATS, he said came after a report by Cameroon’s Supreme State Audit revealed that some FCFA 5 Billion trickled into private pockets between 2007 and 2011, being funds collected from various tollgates in the country.
The State Audit’s report laid the blame on chiefs of tollgates for the racketeering networks that help them to stuff their pockets with money at the expense of the state.
Ekombe said that ATS will have four components in its configuration which will be the vehicle registration number, the vehicles plat number, driver’s license number and an in-built map of Cameroon that will detect the specific location of the vehicle at any time especially when crossing the tollgate.
The inventor added that if the ATS is effectively managed to replace the manual system, it will be using a pre-paid mobile money or scratch card on a smart phone. “Each time a driver crosses a tollgate, the charges are
automatically deducted and the money sent directly into the State Treasury. But if the driver fails to pay, all his information will appear on the monitor of the police post at the tollgate and his car will immediately be intercepted,” he said.
The engineer also pointed out that one of the benefits of ATS is that it will help gov’t to monitor road networks that are highly used by unauthorized vehicles while also determining which of its road networks are highly plied.
The Enterprise’s Managing Director, Simon Oben equally admitted that ATS will help the state seal “leakages” at tollgates, track all unauthorized vehicle users through the driver license component, track users of all vehicles and aid in retrieving all stolen cars through the Transport Office.
ATS follows another groundbreaking innovation – the Biometric Voting System (BVS) now in use by Elections Cameroon (ELECAM) which was also a creation of PEFSCOM. Ekombe’s hopes are that Cameroon’s government which losses billions through a flawed tollgate system and other corrupt practices will at least not lose more money at her tollgates again.
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