GOVT SAVES E30M ON FUEL IN THREE MONTHS

MBABANE – Government has realised about E30 million worth of savings on fuel in the past three months. 

This was said by the Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg, when he made his submissions before the Finance Sessional Committee through a report that was tabled by the Chairperson, Manzini North MP Thandi Nxumalo. 

The tabled report was that of the Finance Sessional Committee on the Supplementary Appropriation Bill No.18 of 2020. 

The committee found that if the Bill was approved by the House of Assembly, 30 per cent of the CTA budget allocation from all the line ministries would be reallocated to the Ministry of Public Works and Transport for the purposes of procuring fuel.

The minister said the pending court case between the Central Transport Administration (CTA) and government did not have any effect on the exercise of reallocating 30 per cent of the budget reallocation of CTA from all the line ministries.  

Recommended

Meanwhile, the committee has recommended that the House adopts the committee’s report on the Supplementary Appropriation (No.4) Bill, 2020 (Bill No.18 of 2020).

The report is yet to be debated and adopted by the House of Assembly.       

The committee, in its report, commended the minister for the reforms that have been implemented, especially the closing of the Trading Account, as the issue has been a thorn in the flesh for many years. 

The minister informed the committee that the closure of the Trading Account Was An Administrative Decision meant to curb over expenditure at CTA. 

“Operation of the Trading Account had no limit and accountability, hence its closure to enforce accountability. The closure has no bearing on the interest of CTA workers as their terms and conditions of employment remain the same, they continue to receive their salaries for the normal work done as was the case prior to the closure of the account,” stated the minister after he was asked to clarify the status of the matter. 

Secondly, he said the decision to close the Trading Account was purely administrative and as such, it did not require consultation of workers prior to implementation as it did not affect their interest in any way. 

Circular

He said the ministry had issued Circular No. 1 of 2020/21 on the proposed Central Transport Administration Transition to address some control measures. 

He submitted that they were yet to engage the workers on some of the control measures.

It was highlighted that some of the benefits aligned with the closure of the Trading Account were that the Ministry of Public Works and Transport had started to implement reforms which would ensure controls of most activities at this department.

The committee further expressed concern on whether there were any strategies in place to ensure a smooth transition of the closure of the Trading Account, to ensure that government was not grounded.

What prompted the question was that there was an outcry over fuel shortage in government such that service delivery had dropped drastically.

The committee was told that at present, CTA depots had run out of fuel for a prolonged period due to the lack of cooperation by the general transport manager, which then prompted the ministry to provide fuel for all government ministries through the uniformed or security forces.

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