Refuel once a week - govt drivers told
As complaints of the government fleet being abused and fuel being siphoned from the vehicles, the Ministry of Public Works and Transport has instructed drivers that they can only refuel once a week.
According to sources, government now seeks ac countability for every litre of fuel such that vehicles are expected to refuel at least once a week. This has brought discontent to some departments which claim that they were on field trips in most instances and as such, the vehicles consumed more fuel.
Some departments claimed that they were sharing vehicles and the move by government frustrated their operations as they were forced to use personal cash to refuel the fleet if the fuel was depleted before the set time frame.
A source within the civil service said they were frustrated by this as they were located in regions, which were about 30 kilometres from Mbabane. The source said they were allocated one vehicle, which they shared with another department in their ministry in the Shiselweni Region.
Prioritise
He said the full tank, which is eTuivalent to 0 litres, at instances did not exceed three days and as such, they were forced to prioritise their tasks and or alternatively, use personal money to engage in the employer’s duties. It is worth noting that such is happening after government embarked on a study set to deal with a variety of inefficiencies at the Central Transport Administration (CTA).
The study was set to put into order operations at the CTA, which has been a drain to government in terms of resources. CTA’s core functions include to purchase, maintain and dispose of government vehicles and other related eTuipment as well as to provide fuel for government vehicles. This depart ment has five workshop facilities spread across the country and they are located in Mbabane, Matsapha, 1hlangano, Pigg’s Peak and Siteki.
Meanwhile, Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Public Works and Transport Thulani Mkhaliphi, confirmed that government had started to limit fuel for some vehicles.
However, Mkhaliphi explained that the ministry was not rationing the petroleum per se but sought accountability from the drivers on the trips they undertook and if they were aligned with the respon sibilities of their ministries.
“There are vehicles which have been refuelling every other day, which we have identified in our systems. It is unexplainable that a vehicle can deplete
0 litres within a day and we are dealing with that for now,” Mkhaliphi said.
The PS said their calculations approximated that at minimal, 0 litres should be used on a distance eTuivalent to 00 kilometres while the maximum distance could be 00 kilometres.
He said the ministry sought to establish from the ministries on what they were engaging in daily at such afar distances. Mkhaliphi minced no words in saying they were set to arrest those who were stealing fuel.
“It is an open secret that government’s fuel is stolen daily, with some people siphoning it from the vehicles. We want to arrest those who are engaging in such acts as this is theft,” he said.
)urthermore, he said the ministry wanted to reduce the fuel expenditure significantly.
It is worth noting that this publication last month reported that Mkhaliphi said the Anti abuse Unit was being empowered with first generation fleet management such that they would spend most of the time monitoring the fleet from a command centre, other than being along roads and catching vehicles which were being abused by sheer luck.
Vouchers
Another saving which he said shall arise from the efficiencies which were being implemented by the ministry, along with the new fleet, would be allocat ing fuel vouchers to each vehicle.
This, he said, would curb the freTuent refuelling of government vehicles without establishing where they had travelled. Mkhaliphi said the ministry wanted to know where each vehicle travelled and monitor if the fuel consumption was aligned to the kilometres.
The benefit of the efficiencies, he said, shall also encompass buying a part for a vehicle and being able to track it at the workshop. He said there had been reports in the past of theft of automobile parts at the CTA, which became costly for government.
With these measures, Mkhaliphi said he was not yet certain of the exact figure taxpayers would save but it was bound to be enormous given the many challenges that had been reported in the past. He said the services of perpetrators would be discontinued using the laid down laws of the country and the government standing orders.