Govt can reduce public expenditure
Apr 25, 2005
There is a lot of public expenditure and this means purchasing powerful four-wheel drive vehicles as Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi proposed is aggravating it further. <br>Other than purchasing, costs in terms of maintenance/repair are so high and heavily affect our meagre budget.
Turiho Nyabaana
There is a lot of public expenditure and this means purchasing powerful four-wheel drive vehicles as Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi proposed is aggravating it further.
Other than purchasing, costs in terms of maintenance/repair are so high and heavily affect our meagre budget.
A quick look at government registered vehicles reveals that ministries have about 1,200 or more vehicles, although some of these may not be operating. Assuming operational vehicles constitute only 80% of the total number, then, a ministry with 1,200 registered vehicles, would have about 960 vehicles operational.
Supposing each vehicle consumes 15 litres of diesel per day for five working days (ignoring the obvious abuse over the weekends) — it would imply a big ministry consumes 72,000 litres of diesel weekly, which comes to about 3,740,000 litres a year. The 21 ministries that we have would have an average annual consumption of about 78,600,000 litres of diesel.
Since the ministries may not have the same number of vehicles, a factor multiplier of 0.7 could balance them. This, therefore, implies about 55,000,000 litres of diesel are consumed annually. The above litres could cost sh90,000,000,000 at an average cost of sh1640 per litre.
This expense is in terms of fuel less inflated garage bills that are normally ten times the above as servicing and maintenance costs.
This is abnormally high. The Government should consider reducing costs and any attempt to stop further purchases should be encouraged. This should also apply to donor-funded projects and parastatals where taxpayers’ money is involved.
On average, a ministry may have 10 divisions, for 21 ministries, the number of divisions would not exceed 210. If each division is allowed not more than 21 vehicles including, this would mean the number of ministry vehicles would not exceed 4,400. Consumption being kept constant, the cost of fuel in a year would not exceed sh28,000,000,000.
Suppose each ministry is limited to spend about sh60,000,000 monthly on vehicle hire, in a year it would spend sh720,000,000, for 21 ministries would spend sh15,000,000,000 and have a balance of sh47,000,000,000 less the huge repair costs. This amount would comfortably upgrade roads. The Government needs to limit further purchase of vehicles, limit funds for unnecessary maintenance to compel ministries to board off some of the vehicles and progressively move towards renting vehicles.
Some of the officers may argue that most of the vehicles are used for fieldwork. Granted, but do you need a vehicle at your disposal everyday awaiting the time to go to the field. The Government would then promote the private sector and enhance private sector investment as far as transport is concerned.
The writer is a road engineer/ transport planner
There is a lot of public expenditure and this means purchasing powerful four-wheel drive vehicles as Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi proposed is aggravating it further.
Other than purchasing, costs in terms of maintenance/repair are so high and heavily affect our meagre budget.
A quick look at government registered vehicles reveals that ministries have about 1,200 or more vehicles, although some of these may not be operating. Assuming operational vehicles constitute only 80% of the total number, then, a ministry with 1,200 registered vehicles, would have about 960 vehicles operational.
Supposing each vehicle consumes 15 litres of diesel per day for five working days (ignoring the obvious abuse over the weekends) — it would imply a big ministry consumes 72,000 litres of diesel weekly, which comes to about 3,740,000 litres a year. The 21 ministries that we have would have an average annual consumption of about 78,600,000 litres of diesel.
Since the ministries may not have the same number of vehicles, a factor multiplier of 0.7 could balance them. This, therefore, implies about 55,000,000 litres of diesel are consumed annually. The above litres could cost sh90,000,000,000 at an average cost of sh1640 per litre.
This expense is in terms of fuel less inflated garage bills that are normally ten times the above as servicing and maintenance costs.
This is abnormally high. The Government should consider reducing costs and any attempt to stop further purchases should be encouraged. This should also apply to donor-funded projects and parastatals where taxpayers’ money is involved.
On average, a ministry may have 10 divisions, for 21 ministries, the number of divisions would not exceed 210. If each division is allowed not more than 21 vehicles including, this would mean the number of ministry vehicles would not exceed 4,400. Consumption being kept constant, the cost of fuel in a year would not exceed sh28,000,000,000.
Suppose each ministry is limited to spend about sh60,000,000 monthly on vehicle hire, in a year it would spend sh720,000,000, for 21 ministries would spend sh15,000,000,000 and have a balance of sh47,000,000,000 less the huge repair costs. This amount would comfortably upgrade roads. The Government needs to limit further purchase of vehicles, limit funds for unnecessary maintenance to compel ministries to board off some of the vehicles and progressively move towards renting vehicles.
Some of the officers may argue that most of the vehicles are used for fieldwork. Granted, but do you need a vehicle at your disposal everyday awaiting the time to go to the field. The Government would then promote the private sector and enhance private sector investment as far as transport is concerned.
The writer is a road engineer/ transport planner