ALTHOUGH the new policy should have come into effect on August 1, the Government is not yet in a position to implement its plan to radically slash the number of public servants who are entitled to Government-owned vehicles.

The finance ministry said yesterday that ministries and agencies had failed to meet the deadline within which to provide it with their vehicle fleets and the names of persons to whom cars are assigned.

“Basically they have not met the deadline,” said Cordel Braham, the finance ministry spokesman. “I do not know why they did not meet the deadline, but I figure it is part of the hustle and bustle of the various ministries. It got left behind.”

The upshot is that the Government does not have a full picture of the number of vehicles it owns, to whom they are allocated, the value of the fleet and the overall cost of the upkeep.

On Friday, the finance ministry issued a statement announcing the new policy, which it said would cut by as much as 80 per cent the number of people who are entitled to Government-owned cars.

“The assignment of vehicles will now be confined to a greatly reduced list of public officers such as permanent secretaries and the heads of specified departments,” said the statement.

It said that the Cabinet had agreed on the policy in February, to come into force on August 1 — the deadline for ministries and departments to provide their inventory of vehicles to the finance ministry, which will decide what categories of employees are entitled to cars.

The move was aimed, the Government said, at improving efficiency and cutting cost, but up to yesterday only a handful of ministries, departments, agencies and statutory companies had complied.

“The Ministry of Finance will remind the outstanding institutions to send the information,” Braham said.

It was not clear when that reminder will be sent or what new deadline they will have to meet.

With the new arrangement, public sector employees who no longer qualify for cars will have the option to buy those they are currently allocated with loans from the Government. But the terms of these purchases are not yet available.

“Civil servants are usually given five years to repay such car loans,” Braham explained.

There is no recent information on what the Government spends on the purchase of motor vehicles, but the 1999 Orane Report said it cost $250 million a year for gasolene, although half of that was to power units owned by the police.