GOVT SAVES E450M IN TWO MONTHS

MBABANE – Cost cutting measures are bearing fruits for government.

In just two months, government was able to save a sum of E450 million, from the ceasing of hiring of cars for use by public servants.
The process of stopping the hiring of cars was implemented when the Prime Minister, Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini, announced the seven cost cutting measuresby his government.

The reason was to implement major interim fiscal decisions to enhance financial prudence and controls so as to spend as little money as possible, owing to the fiscal challenges currently faced by government.

One of the cost cutting measures, as announced by the PM, was that government would not hire any vehicles for use by Cabinet ministers but instead would utilise vehicles available in the government pool and all vehicles rented for ministers would be returned to contain expenditure. The ministry of Public Works and Transport recently revealed, through its second quarter performance report, that with the addition of the new fleet of BMW escort cars recently purchased, government had a fleet of 3 750 cars.

Government spokesperson Percy Simelane revealed that E450 million had been saved by government on the cars, which were rented mainly from South Africa.

He said this in light of government’s efforts to resuscitate the ailing economy which has, among other things, resulted in civil servants not getting their cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA) for the past three years.

The savings were made between November 2018 and January 2019 as revealed by Simelane.
“Government is employing all means necessary to resuscitate the economy and to prove the effectiveness of the cost cutting measures announced by government. A sum of E450 million has been saved by government in two months from ceasing the hiring of cars from South Africa for use by public servants,” he said.

Renting

When asked how many cars government was renting before it stopped, Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg said the number was not that high but the Minister of Public Works and Transport, Chief Ndlaluhlaza Ndwandwe and his team, had been working on it and reduced the bill this year to less than half of what it was last year. 

“We are busy with an analysis and will let you know what the saving is,” the minister said.
He said it was not just with the non-hiring of foreign cars where government had saved money but also through the suspension of hiring and promotions of civil servants.

Simelane said the move to implement that came after a recommendation by the International monetary Fund (IMF), which is an organisation that oversees the fixed exchange rate arrangements between countries, thus helping national governments manage their exchange rates and allowing these governments to prioritize economic growth, and to provide short-term capital to aid the balance of payments.

Simelane said in 2008, the IMF found that the pool of employees in the country’s public sector surpassed the required number by 7 000 and there was a need to implement the freezing of hiring and promotions.
Although he was not specific in terms of figures on how much government had saved on this, he did mention that it was working positively for government in its cost cutting measures initiative.

Lowering

Meanwhile, Simelane assured the nation that despite the price of bread going up, government would not be lowering the handbrake on implementing tariffs on essential commodities.
This emanated from unconfirmed reports that the Eswatini Electricity Company (EEC) had applied to have electricity tariffs hiked by 5.9 per cent, which civil servants would not be able to shoulder given the prevailing economic challenges.

The company had initially applied for a 5.9 per cent multi-year tariff increase for the 2018/19 and 2020/2021 financial year to recover their costs as disclosed by a source to this publication last year.

 In February 2017, the Eswatini Energy Regulatory Authority (ESERA) approved a multi-year average tariff increase of 15 per cent over the 2017/19 and 2018/19 financial years.

All fixed charges, including the access charge for the 2018/19 financial year increased by 6.4 per cent.
Simelane said if that was true, it would be debated by Cabinet before any resolution could be made.

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