Cabinet ministers and top government to continue enjoying the use of luxury cars

Cabinet ministers and top government officials will enjoy the use of luxury cars for an extra 30 days thanks to delays in shipping in low-capacity replacements.

In his budget speech in June, Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta had ordered the withdrawal of all official cars with an engine capacity exceeding 1800cc as part of measure to control costs within the government in light of a contracting economy.

On Monday, Mr Kenyatta explained that the extension was made to give more time for the withdrawal and replacement of such vehicles.

“We have decided to extend the deadline for the implementation of Phase one of this policy to 30th November, 2009 so as to provide enough time to withdraw and replace the non compliant vehicles with the compliant ones,” Mr Kenyatta explained in a statement.

The vehicles are to be surrendered by senior government officials including cabinet ministers, assistant ministers, permanent secretaries and provincial commissioners. Under the austerity measures outlined by Mr Kenyatta in his budget speech, all senior government officials would henceforth be entitled to only one official vehicle whose engine capacity did not exceed 1800cc.

Surrendered

“We wish to inform the public that the procurement of the vehicles compliant with this new policy is well underway,” Mr Kenyatta said.

“However, due to circumstances beyond our control we are behind schedule in terms of implementing this directive, which was initially set for September 30,” he added.

So far, the government has earned Sh170 million from the sale of 488 cars surrendered by various departments.

A task force that handles austerity measures on transport says 2,000 vehicles have been surrendered by various government departments following Mr Kenyatta’s directive.

The task force, chaired by Mr Donald Kibera from the Treasury, has managed to reduce the government fleet from 8,900 to 6,900, according to the report.

In July, the government ordered 126 new low capacity vehicles for ministers, assistant ministers and permanent secretaries.
Mr Kenyatta had said the surrendered cars were to be sold to raise money for the resettlement of families displaced by post-election violence.

Mr Kenyatta and Northern Kenya Development minister Mohamed Elmi set the pace by using Volkswagen Passat models (1600cc or 1800cc) after the new rules were announced.

Recently, Mr Kenyatta told Parliament that only 24 out of 42 ministries had submitted their vehicle inventories as requested by Treasury. He hinted then that the deadline might be moved to beyond November due to complicated procurement rules.