Judges and parastastal chiefs ordered to give up guzzlers

Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura has given judges and heads of parastatals up to the middle of February to surrender their fuel guzzling limousines.

Mr Muthaura sent a circular to the officials asking that they surrender vehicles with an engine capacity of more than 1800cc in line with a government austerity policy. The order was to take effect on December 15 but some officials are said to have got it late and the deadline was extended to the middle of February.

The circular says that since ministers and permanent secretaries have complied with the new policy, other government officials must also comply to redeem the image of a government viewed as wasteful and flashy. He asked the officials to use vehicles of an engine capacity not more than 1800cc although Treasury has not bought the vehicles.

Efforts to tame the ballooning public expenditure by targeting luxury government vehicles was announced by Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta in June 2009. The austerity measures were backed by President Kibaki when State House said it had returned eight state-of-the-art vehicles to dealers because they were procured without its authority and at a time when the government had frozen the purchase of new cars.

Cabinet ministers, permanent secretaries and other public officials, who usually have a fleet of cars at their disposal, will now keep only one. Treasury PS Joseph Kinyua said the government expected to generate about Sh500 million from the sale of cars returned by its officials.

Money saved from maintaining luxury vehicles will be used in an economic stimulus package and social projects such as resettling internally displaced people. Mr Kenyatta said the move by State House to reject the eight cars would save taxpayers about Sh150 million.

The government bought 130 Passats from CMC Motors in line with the directions. The earlier deadline of September 30 was extended to November 30. Many ministers complied but a few have refused to give up theirs. Treasury also ordered 30 seven-seater Land Rovers to be used off-road by ministers and other officials. Treasury argues that it can save up to Sh2 billion a year if public officials use vehicles with smaller engine capacity.

Previous Finance ministers have been unable to enforce the policy, especially during the Moi regime. The Passats were bought at Sh3.7 million each while the Land Rovers cost Sh4 million under the contract with CMC.

On Thursday, Finance Permanent Secretary Joseph Kinyua said parastatal chiefs, provincial commissioners and judges will be required to surrender their fuel guzzlers. “The Head of the Civil Service issued a circular to them in December. We are in the process of getting the relevant data and we are certain we will not face any opposition this time round,” Mr Kinyua told journalists in Nyeri when he accompanied his Fisheries counterpart, Prof Japhet Micheni, during a tour of projects funded under the Economic Stimulus programme.

Meanwhile, Prof Micheni said the first phase of the Sh1.12 billion economic stimulus programme through which 100 fish ponds were to be constructed in 140 constituencies was a “success”. “Many constituencies have surpassed the 100 ponds that they were supposed to construct by the end of the first phase, which is an indication that they are happy with the project,” the PS said.

He said Treasury had already released Sh600 million to build and stock more ponds. A similar number of fish ponds will be constructed in the second phase.