Previous Story
Teno calls for tighter use of gov’t. cars
|
Posted on Apr 28 1999
Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio yesterday renewed calls to government employees to restrict the use of taxpayer-provided vehicles to official purposes as a way of curbing waste and abuse of government resources.
The governor made fresh efforts seeking compliance to existing laws that regulates the use of government cars in light of the recommendation by the Office of Public Auditor for stricter implementation to avoid widespread misuse.
OPA noted in its 1998 Annual Report that such practice was widespread during the past administration “because of lack of commitment by most agency heads to implement the requirements.”
It cited that during a CNMI-wide audit conducted from March 1995 to March 1997, the government has failed to fully comply with the requirements of the Government Vehicle Act and the Government Vehicle Regulations resulting in weak control on the use of government transportation.
“There’s a memorandum that has been issued that does not allow the use of government vehicles for private purposes. The public auditor is monitoring all those who are using it for personal matters and these people will be subject to penalty if they are found violating the law,” Tenorio reminded government employees.
According to the governor, he expects possible misuse of government cars to decrease with the termination of several vehicle lease contracts entered into by his predecessor. Other cars assigned to the Executive Department have been transferred to other agencies needing transportation.
At the same time, the CNMI leader exhorted government officials to have the vehicles assigned to their agencies marked properly in order to comply with requirements of the law.
A previous OPA audit of the past administration showed that on Saipan alone, about 124 government vehicles did not have the required government plates, while a number were tinted and did not have proper markings.
