All of us were overwhelmed by the news that some part of our state Government just recently bought a fleet of expensive official cars. Most think that it’s a waste of taxpayers’ money, no matter how they tried to justify the lower maintenance costs for these ‘better’ cars.
According to news taken from AOL.com, Americans apparently has got 642,233 of them. Operating those vehicles, maintenance, leases and fuel cost taxpayers a whopping USD3.4bil (RM11bil) last year, according to General Services Administration data obtained and analyzed by The Associated Press.
The US government owns or leases sedans, SUVs, trucks and limousines for more than three dozen agencies. Are they all really necessary? While Cabinet and other officials say they need the vehicles to do their jobs, watchdogs say MISMANAGEMENT of the government fleet is costing millions of dollars a year in wasteful spending.
The report claims that Transportation Secretary Mary Peters has two drivers. Their salaries totaled more than USD128,000 (RM419,000) last year. Also, The driver for Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt earns about USD90,000 (RM296,000) a year! That’s roughly as much as what our ministers are earning! Full report can be obtained at http://fastweb.inel.gov/FFR2007.doc
Maybe we can look back and ask ourselves, is it real to expect our beloved Malaysia (which by the way is only ranked as ‘Secondary Emerging Country’ together with China, Russia, Egypt, etc) to have COMPLETE accountability and foresight, when a much ‘developed’ nation in economy, social, education, infrastructure, good governance, democracy and accountability, still demonstrate doubts and are subject to criticisms after hundreds of years?
