Latest update November 15th, 2024 1:00 AM
$95M allocated to replace ministers’ damaged vehicles – Teixeira
Claiming that vehicles were returned in run-down conditions by the Coalition government, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira, on Monday disclosed that $95M has been budgeted to repair and purchase new vehicles for ministers.
Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira
Teixeira indicated to the National Assembly’s Committee of Supply that when the former ministers handed over their vehicles to the new government, it was observed that there were cracked windshields, ripped and stained seats, damaged radios and even different tyres on the automobiles.
“We don’t know who did what,” Teixeira told the House, “so this money is to do some repairs and purchase new vehicles.”
She said that a number of the vehicles will have to be “boarded up” because it would be too costly to repair.
During her presentation, the Minister could not disclose details of the types/models of the vehicles to be procured nor how much each would cost taxpayers. She maintained, however, that public tendering would be the method utilized to source the vehicles.
“I’m not aware of the type or the cost,” she said. “Due to the urgency to get the budget and get the money we had to rush and put in allocation because there was a problem, and we had to attend to the safety and security of the President, Vice President, and Prime Minister so this allocation is here for that purpose because we had five weeks to bring the budget.”
However, the former Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson, was not happy with Teixeira’s reasoning.
He made it clear that it was pertinent to both the Committee of Supply and taxpayers to know the model of vehicles and whether the prices of each vehicle would be procured at reasonable prices.
He also argued that three months to procure the vehicles for the top officials of the government is not sufficient enough.
It is with this that Patterson asked the Parliamentary Minister to provide an engineer’s estimate for the vehicles, with the aim of transparency.
In response to Patterson’s concern, Minister Teixeira stated that the figure has been arrived based on the past purchases.
“You don’t need an engineer’s for the purchasing of vehicles,” she added.
The Minister promised, however, that in the 2021 budget, all new purchases of vehicles, along with their details, will be readily available since time will permit for such.
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