Will Treasury succeed this time to trim State's transport costs?

High end fuel guzzler's SUVs arrive at the KICC during the Africa Climate Summit 2023. [Silas Otieno, Standard]

The National Treasury last week unveiled the draft Government Transport Policy 2024, one that contains proposals similar to numerous others that the government has in the past tried to implement as it sought to cut costs, but with little success. 

Some of the proposals by the Treasury include cutting the number of cars, including guzzlers, assigned to senior government officials and requiring all civil servants to fly Kenya Airways.

It also says that in the case of air travel, only Cabinet secretaries and principal secretaries can fly business class while the others will be required to use economy class.

The policy has reduced the number of cars assigned to CSs and governors to two while other officials including PSs, parastatal heads and chief executives of independent commissions shall have one vehicle.

It also caps the engine capacity at 2,600cc for saloon cars and 3,000cc for four-by-four utility vehicles allocated to Cabinet Secretaries, Speakers of the National Assembly and the Senate, the Chief Justice, the Attorney-General, Secretary to the Cabinet and the Head of Public Service.

Vehicles allocated to PSs, accounting officers, judges of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal and Director of Public Prosecution will have a capacity of up to 2,400cc for saloon cars and 3,000cc for four-by-four utility vehicles.

“Official vehicles purchased for use by other officers on Job Group R and above and High Court Judges and chief executive of state corporations shall not exceed 2000 cc for saloon cars and 2900cc for 4 x 4 utility vehicles,” reads the draft policy.

“Passenger utility vehicles above 3000cc are not allowed in government, except specialised vehicles and for security purposes.”

The government also said it would heavily adopt the use of electric vehicles particularly in non-operational areas to cut costs. It said this would be supported by the planned installation of 1,000 charging stations, of which 700 will be in urban areas and 300 along highways.

It further requires all government officers on official travel to fly economy, reserving business class flights for CSs and PSs. It also said that all air travel should be on Kenya Airways.

The policy, Treasury said, is expected to address the inherent weaknesses in the management of the government’s fleet of vehicles.

It is also in a bid to cut costs. According to the Treasury, budgetary allocation to government transport shows a steady rise from Sh8.6 billion in 2021 to Sh9.7 billion in 2022, Sh14.3 billion in 2023 and a further Sh12.2 budgeted for the 2023-2024 financial year.

This is not the first time the government has tried to implement cost-saving measures insofar as the transportation of civil servants is concerned.

Perhaps the most famous being in 2009 when the then Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta said all senior officials would do away with their fuel guzzlers and instead use the Volkswagen Passat that he noted was more fuel efficient with its engine capacity of 1,800cc.

The government would later that year order 120 VW Passats that would be allocated to ministers and their assistants in a move that was expected to save the government Sh2 billion annually in fuel costs and repairs.

The uptake was, however, lukewarm among senior government officials who eventually relapsed to their fuel guzzlers.

It is the same case for air travel. Over the last decade, the government has several times ordered government officials to fly KQ but this has not been adhered to.

While this has been contested as it would significantly affect other carriers, especially in the local and regional routes, it was also seen as among the ways to give KQ a much-needed boost, with government officials being among the frequent users of air travel.

Another instance where the government has tried to cut the cost of travel includes last year’s directive for civil servants to quit non-essential international travel.

On October 2 last year, the head of the public service Felix Koskei issued a circular that suspended non-essential foreign travel.

Among the categories of travel banned through the circular included benchmarking and study visits, training and capacity-building initiatives, conferences and meetings of general participation and research and academic meetings.

This was expected to significantly reduce the amount the country spends on paying for overseas trips that give little value for money to taxpayers.

However, according to audits of travel by government officials, they appear to have blatantly ignored the directive, with travel expenditure for the year to June 2024 going up 34 per cent compared to the previous financial year.

A report by the Controller of Budget shows that spending on both domestic and foreign travel increased by Sh6.97 billion over the financial year to Sh27.34 billion from Sh20.37 billion in the financial year to June 2023.

Analysis by the office of the Controller of Budget however shows numerous instances where different government agencies sent their people to attend forums, many of them non-essential, and in some instances, staying away for weeks.

According to the COB report on the government’s spending over the financial year to June 2024, expenditure on domestic travel grew by a third to Sh18.15 billion from Sh14.04 billion in 2023. Since the 2019-2020 financial year, spending on local travel by government officials has nearly doubled.

Spending on foreign travel increased 45 per cent to Sh9.19 billion from Sh6.33 billion in the 2022-23 financial year.

“Expenditure on domestic travel has grown from Sh10.82 billion in the 2019-20 financial year to Sh18.15 billion in the 2023-24 financial year,” said the Controller of Budget.