Friday, March 29, 2024

More Government Vehicles impounded

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The Impounded Government Vehicle
A joint operation by Government Transport Control Unit (GTCU), Road Transport Safety Agency and the Zambia Police Service in Solwezi district has impounded government vehicles for abrogating government regulations.

The operation that was mounted at different points around the district intercepted and impounded nine government vehicles due to driving without a weekend pass and failure to produce the competence certificate as required when driving a government vehicle.

Speaking to ZANIS, during the operation yesterday, North-western provincial GTCU inspector, Catherine Tembo said that operation that has been going on for over a month now has seen a reduction in such cases.

Ms Tembo said it is saddening to note that some government workers still do not want to comply with the regulations despite several reminders.

She said government officers should comply with the clear stipulated law on use of government vehicles to avoid misunderstanding with the unit.

“Government workers need to understand that the government is losing a lot of money because of abuse of government vehicles causing development to lag behind in the country”, Ms Tembo said.

Meanwhile, some local motorists commended the efforts by GTCU and encouraged the unit to extend operations to other districts in the province.

Musanya Musanya said such operations are very vital to help keep government officers in check because the abuses of government vehicles are a cost on tax payers.

And The Controller of Government Transport (CGT) unit in Muchinga Province yesterday swang into action impounding several Government vehicles and motorbikes for various offences.

The team lead by Head of CGT unit in Muchinga Province Saint Chisha impounded a total of 17 vehicles in Chinsali alone within two hours of a surprise operation mounted at Nambuluma police check point , about 15km from Chinsali Town.

The team in Isoka led by Christopher Katongo , CGT officer, also impounded three government vehicles for not following stipulated rules and regulations of Government motor vehicles.

In an interview with the Zambia News and Information Services (ZANIS) shortly after a successful operation in Chinsali and Isoka districts, Mr. Chisha said from the 17 Government vehicles impounded yesterday in Chinsali, 10 drivers have been charged for various offences and they are expected to pay penalties of fines ranging from K350 to K750 at the Provincial administration accounts section on Monday morning.

Mr. Chisha warned that all the officers who have been charged will be followed up if they do not show up tomorrow to pay the fines.

Mr. Chisha has since warned Government officers to desist from misusing government vehicles adding that government was spending a lot of money to service and repair the vehicles using tax payers money.

Mr. Chisha also disclosed that similar surprise operations will be conducted to ensure that the rampant abuse of Government vehicles is controlled.

Mr. Chisha said among those charged, are drivers who were moving without weekend passes, un authorized log books and failure to produce their competence licenses.

He noted that most Government drivers in the district ignore the stipulated rules and regulations of driving a Government motor vehicle stressing that such kind of mentality portrays a bad picture towards Government.

Mr. Chisha who is also the Chief Human Resource Officer at Provincial administration, further said the team in the province will not spare anyone abusing Government motor vehicles.

11 COMMENTS

  1. This is fruitless exercises if I am being honest

    Start from the Top and make it a siackable offence

    There are some of the cars without GRZ number plates being just abused

    I hold a PhD

    Thanks

    BB20142016

  2. The only problem her is how long can govt continue doing this or sustain it once Mutati is transferred, its back to square one…Mutati needs to implement polices or SI to set up a govt company that will be doing this job involve ZP as well in this exercise for rural areas.

  3. While this is good, it should end at impounding vehicles and paying fines. In these government departments there are officers whose job is to ensure that anyone driving these vehicles have the necessary competence and have signed the log books. So they too should be held accountable.

    • @bemba man, you mean nowadays Govt vehicles no longer have those familiar emblems “GRZ” written on them? Unless they don’t, it would still be very difficult to disguise a Govt vehicle even if you remove a license plate.

  4. Before Mutati was moved to this ministry I had never heard of the Government Transport Control Unit. Now some officials have surfaced under it’s auspices. What work were they doing in all the previous years?

    I would proffer that Mutati has, and has always had ‘bigger’ political ambitions. Moving him to this nondescript ministry would appear to have been a dampener on those ambitions. But it appears he has found a way of still being in the lime light – probably to the irk of his boss who doesn’t like competition. But what does he do with him? Damned if he fires him and risky to his leadership if he keeps him.

  5. I hope he won’t be removed again because I still don’t understand why he was removed from MoF after introducing that si on the auditor general report.

  6. This was there in Kaunda and UNIP days but when MMD formed government it fail-out. The Government Transport Control Unity has always been there it is officers within government ministries and department who are given extra responsibilities. This is simple all what you do is to make your route plan for the weekend and apply to GTCU on Fridays, competence certificates are issued from trade institutes upon joining government if need be to drive a government vehicle or motor bike.

  7. I find it hard to imagine that an entire population of adults employed by government must be policed to hand in their official vehicles outside of office time. This is like watching a kid playing in the dirt carefully so he or she doesn’t take dust to the mouth! Anyway – most civil servants either cannot afford a car or the fuel for the car they have so government abuse is their only recourse. Disgusting either way.

  8. Keep it up until these guys behind the misuse of facilities come to realize it is not worthy to continue the vice.

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