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DPH adopts new car use plan
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Posted on Apr 19 2002
With the Babauta administration projecting a $24-million budget deficit this year, the Department of Public Health said it has adopted a new policy on vehicle use as part of its belt-tightening measures.
Acting Public Health Secretary James U. Hofschneider said the department is consolidating its vehicles under one office, the Division of Hospital Administration.
“The whole purpose is to consolidate vehicles under one division to make sure that we monitor their use, ensure proper maintenance, and also, so that we can share,” he said.
“In the past, when a vehicle is assigned to a unit, basically the car is kept within that unit,” Hofschneider explained.
As a result, some offices within the department had to rent vehicles when needed, even if some of the service cars assigned to some other offices were not being used.
“With all vehicles consolidated, perhaps if the vehicle is idle, another unit may be able to use that, because some of them do not use the unit 24 hours a day,” he said.
The new policy is on top of the travel policy Hofschneider initiated at the department.
He said travel costs are being contained by screening travel applications through a travel committee he created.
Hofschneider said the department has also cut down on overtime of employees, excluding that of much-needed positions related to hospital care.
Ed Guerrero, the department’s chief financial officer, is overseeing the department’s cost cutting measures, according to Hofschneider.
The DPH has been projecting a budget deficit of $13 million, even if the department has implemented an array of cost-cutting measures that include salary freeze and frugality in utility use.
Hofschneider had said the department’s expenditures have reached $20 million, and it is expected to reach $44 million before the year ends.
