No spending spree
Finance minister sets record straight on purchase of vehicles for ministers
WITH MEMBERS of the public fuming over the Andrew Holness administration’s spend on motor vehicles, Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke downplayed the level of expenditure in Parliament yesterday.
“I felt it necessary to take this opportunity to respond to some of the information contained in the article, which, as presented, wrongly implies excessive consumption by this administration on motor vehicles for ministers of government as compared with the Simpson Miller administration of 2012,” Clarke told the House as he pointed to a story published by The Sunday Gleaner on March 25.
Clarke noted that the spend by the current administration was less than the $190 million reported based on an Access to Information response provided to The Gleaner by the Ministry of Finance.
“For four of the ministries, the date of purchase was correctly stated in the document provided as prior to February 2016,” said Clarke. “The number of vehicles stated in the article as 18 is, therefore, incorrect. The correct number of vehicles purchased for ministers after February 2016 is 14,” Clarke added, while noting that The Gleaner included all the vehicles provided on the list by the finance ministry.
LEGITIMATE NEED
He disclosed that 16 ministers of the previous administration, on leaving office, bought the vehicles they were using, consistent with then government policy. Therefore, when the new administration assumed office, there was a legitimate need to purchase motor vehicles. Clarke argued that any comparison with the expenditure on vehicles by the Simpson Miller administration would be unfair as GCT of 16.5 per cent and SCT of 20 per cent became payable on government purchases in 2014, while CIF became payable on government imports in 2013.
The finance minister charged that the total CIF value for new vehicles purchased by the current administration is approximately US$682,000, compared with approximately US$692,000 for new vehicles purchased for ministers in the Simpson Miller administration.
Editors Note: The Sunday Gleaner had correctly reported that Dr Christopher Tufton, Shahine Robinson, Daryl Vaz, and Kamina Johnson Smith opted to use the vehicles previously assigned to the ministers they replaced, but we inadvertently failed to minus the cost of these four vehicles from the total expenditure reported.