KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Ministry of National Security says it has cleared a backlog of thousands of traffic tickets, following major software modifications to the island’s Traffic Ticket Management System (TTMS).

The TTMS is a centralised, web-based system that was introduced in September 2010 by eGov, to improve ticket management from the point where tickets are issued to an offender, to either being paid at the tax office or adjudicated in court.

The ministry said the major update to the TTMS ensures accurate information is available to government agencies such as the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and the Courts, among other stakeholders.

Some 240,000 traffic tickets recorded as failed payments, from September 2010 to April 2019 have been rectified via the upgraded TTMS, the ministry said in a news release this afternoon.

Senior Director for the ministry’s Major Technology Transformation Branch, Arvel Grant, said the almost 10-year backlog can be attributed to “errors in interpreting the driver’s license number or traffic offence code on the handwritten tickets, creating scenarios where a ticket was paid at the Tax Authority, however the ensuing ticket update failed the verification process”.

Grant further explained that “over the years, those failed verifications accumulated and the related traffic tickets remained labelled as outstanding tickets. The recent update corrected this issue, cleared the 10-year backlog and enhanced the integrity of traffic ticketing data”.

Minister of National Security, Dr Horace Chang, said the ministry has identified that poor data entry is an ongoing issue and is embarking on a pilot project to replace the manual ticketing system.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/Security_ministry_clears_240,000_in_traffic_tickets_backlog_through_new_TTMS