Home | News | GOVERNMENT SAVES E31.2M AFTER STOPPING RENTAL OF 12 SUVS

GOVERNMENT SAVES E31.2M AFTER STOPPING RENTAL OF 12 SUVS

16/11/2020 09:36:00 BY STANLEY KHUMALO

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MANZINI – An instruction by government to stop the renting of 12 Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) has saved the taxpayer E31 206 000.

This is because on November 3, 2018, the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, rented 12 Toyota Fortuner SUVs at E3 500 per day for each minister.

The vehicles leased by government from Woodford Car Hire in Mbabane, were first seen during the swearing-in ceremony of the legislators held at Cabinet offices at Hospital Hill.

The ceremony was held on November 6, 2018.

The vehicles were envisaged to be used by members of the Executive for three months, which was to lapse in January 2019, wherein a move was to be made to procure a new fleet or extend the rental period.

anticipated

This was because it was anticipated that the circular to guide the remuneration and perks for politicians that was drafted by the Royal Commission would have been finalised by then.

The commission was set to review the remuneration of politicians and other stakeholders in the government pay structure for the 11th Parliament and its tenure had, at the time, been extended to the end of January 2019.

Given the fiscal crisis which has been dominant in the tenure of the 11th Parliament, to-date, no vehicles were procured by government for the incumbent Executive.

Instead, Cabinet ministers have had to use their personal vehicles while executing national duties because most of the government vehicles that were offered to them are in a deplorable state.

Upon cancelling the renting of the SUVs, some ministers were given Chevrolet Trailblazers, which were part of a fleet bought in 2013 by the 10th Parliament and some of them were used by the then ministers whenever their official vehicles were facing mechanical challenges.

procurement

Government bought 32 Chevrolet Trailblazers among its fleet of 611 vehicles.

The tender for the procurement of the vehicles was set at E400 million.

The 32 Chevrolet Trailblazers were shared by the 18 ministries and office of the deputy prime minister. Among the ministries, also, security forces benefitted as some were used by high ranking security personnel.

When the incumbent Cabinet took the reins in 2018, these Chevrolet Trailblazers were said to be in a poor state such that some of the serving ministers resolved to utilise their personal vehicles.

In so doing, the ministers are said to have saved government E2 600 500 each.

leasing

This is because today would have been day 743 of leasing the Toyota Fortuner SUVs at E3 500 per day. This, in essence, means that for the 12 ministers, government would have accumulated a bill of E 31 206 000.

This is because the circular that was submitted by the Royal Commission last year September was suspended by government due to a number of discrepancies that were raised by the varying politicians.

Due to this, the Royal Commission has had its tenure extended in office. This follows other extensions that were accorded the Phil Mnisi-led Royal Commission.

acknowledged

Recently, this publication reported that new vehicles were to be procured for politicians and the chairman of the Royal Commission acknowledged that they were assigned to look into the purchasing of new vehicles.

This publication gathered that the Royal Commission was using Finance Circular No.2 of 2013 in drafting the recommendations for the vehicles to be bought for the politicians.

In the initial recommendations made by the Royal Commission through Finance Circular No.3 of 2019, our sister publication, Times SUNDAY, reported that it cost government less to buy official vehicles for Cabinet ministers in the previous administration compared to what would be spent on the current team.

Cabinet ministers in the 2013-2018 term of office had their official vehicles benchmarked at E800 000 each, yet with the current administration, the value of their vehicles was set at a maximum cost of E950 000.

That was before Finance Circular No.3 of 2019 was suspended by the Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg.

Before it was suspended, government was expected to fork out an amount of E17.1 million to purchase vehicles for the 18 Cabinet ministers, while E14.4 million was spent on the preceding team.

The recommendation for the current crop of ministers was that they be bought the latest Toyota Land Cruiser Prado LC Prado 3.0D VX (25X), whereas their predecessors enjoyed the luxury of the BMW X5.

suitable

The reasoning for the recommendation was that the BMW X5 was not suitable for local terrain as politicians had to travel through various parts of the country on official business.

It was supposed that the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado LC Prado 3.0D VX (25X) was durable and would be able to travel in any part of the country.

Furthermore, the suspended circular proposed that the Prime Minister, Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini, also be presented with two new vehicles valued at E1.8 million each.

This was to increase the cost of the Cabinet ministers’ vehicles from the E17.1 million.

Further expected to hike the taxpayers’ spend on the vehicles was the commission’s recommendation that two cars – a Mercedes CLS 2.5 and a Mercedes GLE 2.5 – valued at E1.5 million each be purchased for Deputy Prime Minister Themba Nhlanganiso Masuku.

The DPM’s vehicles were expected to cost E3 million. This means that the 22 vehicles for the PM, DPM and Cabinet ministers were expected to set the taxpayer back by E23.7 million.