26 Jul 2020

Government is in the process of identifying  a suitable insurance package for its fleet, says Ministry of Transport and Communications permanent secretary, Ms Alicia Mokone.

Appearing before the Parliament Account Committee (PAC) recently, Ms Mokone said the proposed package would make it mandatory for government vehicles to at least buy third party insurance to cover roads accidents.

The current setup where government drivers had to be surcharged for the costs of vehicle damages from accidents had negative financial impact on them, she said.

Ms Mokone said the  intention of the insurance package was therefore to cover expenses in the event of vehicle damage and relieve drivers from financial difficulties.

Though she said it was premature to divulge the details of the package, Ms Mokone hinted that it might adopt the model used  by local government.

Ms Mokone revealed that 263 private garages and 46 car dealerships countrywide had been accredited to undertake maintenance work on government fleet as a way of decentralizing from Central Transport Organisation (CTO).

“Currently an evaluation of 39 garages who had applied for government  fleet maintenance accreditation  is still ongoing while 18 private garages have been submitted for delisting due to various instances of non-compliance with accreditation standards,” she said.

The permanent secretary explained that outsourcing of the services was done through a transparent open tender system

Some garages did not meet specific requirements during the tendering process, she added.

She said decentralisation of government fleet maintenance was meant to improve service delivery adding that ministries and departments were expected to monitor service level adherence agreements.

CTO, she explained, continued to play an advisory role to all ministries in all aspects of vehicle maintenance and procurement.

PAC heard that the proposed auctioning of P5 million worth of vehicle spare parts had been put on hold due to the ongoing  investigations on their procurement years ago.

Ms Mokone disclosed her ministry’s willingness to introduce tollgates across highways saying a proposal had been submitted.

The conventional purpose of tollgates, she said, was to generate revenue for the provision, management and maintenance of road infrastructure.

 Ms Mokone however pointed out that the decision on tollgates establishment could be impacted by lack of alternative roads hence the need to extend the road network.

 With regard to information and communication technology (ICT), Ms Mokone said ICT had become a key factor in contributing to economic growth particularly with the advent of  COVID 19. 

She said the outbreak had increased ICT usage through online communication platforms resulting in connectivity congestion.

Since the outbreak, there  had been a 30 per cent decrease in tariffs across all service providing networks, Ms Mokone said. Ends