03 Dec 2013

The Minister of Transport and Communications, Mr Nonofo Molefhi has advised ministries to properly manage their vehicles and ensure they are properly allocated. 


Responding to a question from Shoshong MP, Mr Molefhi said transport units should also be established within each ministry to manage vehicles. The minister said government fleet stood at around 12 000 vehicles with a total of 3 300 boarded, but not replaced across all ministries.


He said 81.5 per cent of the vehicles were available to the user ministries or departments while 18.5 per cent were off road. 
 Minister Molefhi explained that ministries had not been able to replace all their boarded vehicles for reasons such as inadequate funding and this had caused the boarded fleet to accumulate and create a backlog of un-replaced vehicles. 


“At the same time such ministries were able to continue to provide the much needed service delivery to the respective villages and towns in this country,” he said. 
He said he was not aware of shortage of transport in Shoshong constituency.

Mr Molefhi said vehicle procurement and deployment had been decentralised to ministries and therefore allocations were not managed by his ministry. 


He said various ministries and departments were represented in the Shoshong constituency and as such each ministry had the responsibility of allocating vehicles as per the critical needs of the area and priority. 


The minister said there are initiatives in place aimed at improving management of government fleet. 
His ministry through the Transport Establishment and Review Committee (TERC) advises ministries and departments on effective utilization of their fleet. 


The minister said in instances where it is established that vehicles are underutilised they are withdrawn and allocated to another department. 


He further said CTO is working on Fleet Tracking, Maintenance and Management System that will offer services to all government departments to manage their vehicles including knowing the whereabouts of their vehicles at a particular point in time and their utility. 
 Another initiative is the use of private garages and franchise motor vehicle dealerships for servicing government motor vehicles. 


“To this end, my ministry has designed service level agreements to ensure and assure customers of quality and value for money,” the minister said. 
 He further said officers have in the past been allowed to use their private vehicles and claim mileage in accordance with the prevailing rates. 
 This was however subject to abuse and poorly monitored hence it was abandoned. 


“However, an idea for government officers and the general public could be allowed to use their private vehicles to run government errands was started in the last financial year by drafting guidelines,” he said. 
 Minister Molefhi said the usage of warrants to travel by public transport remains in use adding that schools have a budget to hire private buses on school trips while the ministries of Local Government and Agriculture hire trucks for transportation of goods. 


The minister said funds for transportation were allocated to ministries and therefore it was upon each ministry to use available transport means to assist. 
 Minister Molefhi was responding to Shoshong MP Dikgang Makgalemele who wanted to know why he did not declare shortage of transport a national crisis within government. 


MP Makgalemele also wanted to know the level of vehicle shortage in his constituency and at national level. 
 He further wanted to know steps the minister has taken to address shortage and whether he has considered the use of cabs or taxis to transport government officials in towns and cities to release more vehicles to the rural areas. ENDS