Abandoned vehicles in government agencies show policy weakness

Many local, state and federal government secretariats and agencies across the country are littered with abandoned vehicles in spite of the complaints of inadequate vehicles. TELIAT SULE probes into this ugly trend and proffers solutions to it.

Motor vehicles are a prerequisite for efficient service delivery by public institutions. As we all know, the movement of materials and government personnel from one place to the other will not have been made easy without them. However, it seems that most of the government agencies do not see it that way.

This is because if many of those who visit or transact business with federal or state government agencies take their time to observe happenings around the premises where that transaction is to be sealed, they will be amazed at the number of abandoned vehicles that litter the place. From local, state to federal government ministries and agencies, it is unusual not to see abandoned motor vehicles, some of which might have been there for ages.

We will need simple analysis to fully understand the extent of this problem. There is a federal government secretariat, 36 state secretariats, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) secretariat and 774 local government secretariats.

That means there are 812 secretariats in Nigeria. Again, on the average, the FG, all the 36 states and FCT administration have at least 10 ministries each which translate to 380 ministries. The secretariats and ministries will give you 1192 institutions.

In addition to the above, the federal government has 40 universities; 21 polytechnics; 15 colleges of agriculture and 9 colleges of health technology. These figures add up to 85. The state governments have 38 universities; 13 polytechnics; 19 colleges of agriculture and 40 colleges of health technology. In other words, the 36 state governments in Nigeria have 110 institutions.

If you add 1192, 85 and 110 together, you will have 1387 institutions! Therefore, with an average of 2 abandoned vehicles per institution, there will be 2774 abandoned vehicles across the federal and state institutions in the country!

In view of the vital role motor vehicles play in service delivery, it beats the imagination of well-meaning Nigerians that government institutions can afford to have abandoned vehicles in their offices.

Therefore, if we consider the fact that governments across the three tiers are not able to meet some important needs of the citizenry due to inadequate motor vehicles, it then means some fundamental things are wrong with the manner government agencies manage those assets.

A staff of a local government in Lagos who did not want his name in print attributed the phenomenon to three factors. “It is due to careless attitude, inadequate funding and management incompetence”.

The careless attitude relates to the general lackadaisical attitude displayed towards public assets; inadequate funding is a major factor because after the necessary documentation has been done for a faulty vehicle to be repaired, fund may not be approved, and that is why they believe that the management team in charge of the concerned government agency is not competent.

A close examination of the level of efficiency of some of the institutions owned by the three tiers government that were visited has revealed that the local government official was right.  For instance, how can an institution that monitors every nook and cranny of Lagos State have about 25 vehicles not road worthy at a time?

However, other respondents attributed the phenomenon to government accounting system. “Government operates on a commitment basis because once an asset is purchased it is written off at the end of the fiscal year”, replied Femi Ekun, an accountant. “But it is the responsibility of a designated department within the ministry to monitor the disposal of those vehicles”, he said.

The bureaucracy that goes with vehicle disposal is enough to dissuade any willing public official from doing the rightful thing. “We have to notify the office of the auditor-general that a vehicle should be disposed off, and that is after it must have been packed for about two years ”, according to the local government official. And after the auditor-general has given his approval, the entire process of disposal takes about a year. “He will set up a team to monitor the sale of the vehicle because the general belief is that local government officials will be partial in the process”, he said.

Another official of one of the state polytechnics in the south west attributed the problem to deceit. “On most occasions, the state government gives us refurbished vehicles which break down few months into their usage”, he said. The school authority that is already starved of fund cannot afford to repair them every time those vehicles are faulty.

Federal government owned institutions are no exceptions. Abandoned vehicles are regular sights in some of those institutions. An official of a prominent federal institution who did not want his name in print attributed the phenomenon to innovation.

“When vehicle manufacturers launch new model which is more efficient than the one presently in use in terms of fuel consumption, ruggedness and comfort, the management will opt for the new model.” In other words, opting for the new model automatically translates to abandoning the old vehicle which may be there for as long as the situation permits.

A sociologist who spoke under anonymity because he was not permitted to speak on the matter said that abandoned vehicles phenomenon in government agencies is due to poor maintenance culture and abuse of government property. “This trend is so common because government officials use them for unofficial duties and they lack maintenance culture”, he said.

The fact that this trend still continues now that there is a growing investment in metal scraps shows that it is either the public sector is stranded by the procedures leading to the disposal of abandoned vehicles or the public officials in charge are not competent enough.

Rather than leave those vehicles to constitute nuisance to their surroundings, public institutions are encouraged to embrace some or all of these suggestions. Firstly, the institutions concerned should look for ways to fast track their repairs so as to enhance the productivity of their staff.

One of our respondents said that whenever their vehicles are faulty, they bear the transport fares as their employer will look the other way. The basic minimum wage of the federal government is N18, 000, and by tacitly asking them to bear the transport expenses through non-allocation of funds for repairs will further reduce their disposable income and thus impoverish them the more.

Another way to address this problem is to canvass for attitudinal change. Government officials at all levels should see these properties as their own. Added to this is that we should improve on our maintenance culture which is nothing to write home presently. In addition, due diligence must be done to ensure that a department or section of any institution really needs a vehicle before order is placed for it.

Furthermore, they can sell those abandoned vehicles as scrap metals to firms that will recycle them, that is, if they are faulty beyond repairs. Industry analysts are of the opinion that the demand for scrap metals is on the rise due to the huge construction activities going on in the country. It is believed that a significant portion of the recycle products ends up being used in the construction sector.