IT IS unbelievable. While the Minister of Transport and
Works is using every means to sell the Portmore toll road to residents who are objecting to having to pay to exit and enter their community, the Ministry of Finance is advising government travelling officers that the government will not reimburse their toll fees.Since the opening of the first toll highway between Bushy Park in St. Catherine and Sandy Bay in Clarendon, several travelling officers have been submitting claims for the refund of toll charges paid out of pocket as they traverse the highway while carrying out their duties. In a letter to the St. Ann Parish Council which was read at last Thursday's meeting of the council, the Ministry of Finance made it clear that it is not in a position to honour those claims because of financial constraints.
To add insult to injury, the ministry is further advising
government travelling officers to use non-toll roads when going about official business. The option of using a non-toll road when going about their business is precisely what some of the residents of Portmore have been agitating for.
This Ministry of Finance directive is just the most recent and one of the most blatant attempts on the part of the Government to have public servants subsidise the state in carrying out their duties. Travelling allowances have long been a sore point between government travelling officers and their employers, both for adequacy to cover real costs incurred and timeliness of
disbursement. In the same way that the employer is expected to
provide appropriate tools and adequate resources for work in the office, it is just a basic necessity to meet travel costs incurred in getting the job done on the road in a satisfactory manner.
Highway 2000 is touted by the Government as the road to
development and greater efficiency and productivity. To advise its own travelling officers to steer clear of the toll highway is not just ridiculously contradictory but is plain penny wise and pound foolish. Surely it should not be all that difficult to determine when officers are travelling on official business.
The savings of time alone from using the highway would more than compensate for higher costs incurred from paying the toll. The people of Portmore who are in support of the toll highway have fully grasped this simple point of basic economics. The Ministry of Finance is yet to do so.
Government has obligations both to operate as efficiently as
possible as it spends taxpayers' money and loan money and to meet the
legitimate expenses of conducting its business. This directive from the finance ministry to government travelling officers flies in the face of these obligations and should be withdrawn and replaced with something far more sensible.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
