Page 1461 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 17 April 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
paid to enter the bus and have not evaded payment. All in all, for those various reasons, this system was introduced as an interim measure to increase revenue to the Government and to minimise fare evasion which, we believe, has been a serious problem.
Government Vehicles
MR WOOD: Mr Speaker, I direct a question to the Chief Minister. I seek some expansion on the question that Mr Berry asked or will take it in a slightly different direction. In view of the adverse audit report tabled yesterday, has the Chief Minister issued a direction now to the public service about enforcement of the rules for private use of government vehicles, and, if so, what have you directed?
MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, the report was tabled yesterday. I have not even finished reading it yet. At this point I have given no direction, but I have discussed it informally with the head of the ACT Government Service and he knows that I expect the management of motor vehicles to be tightened up. The instructions are out there already. All that is required is for managers to implement those instructions. I think that from the report itself it will be obvious that there are very precise instructions that have been issued about the management, use and control of publicly owned vehicles.
When I have fully read that report, as I expect to do within the next day or two, if I think there is any need for me to make any specific direction to the head of the ACT Government Service I will do so. At the moment I have not fully read or digested the report and I am not inclined to jump off the top of a tall building until I know that there is something at the bottom that will support me when I get there.
MR WOOD: I ask a supplementary question. Will the Chief Minister be directing that charges incurred outside the official guidelines should be recovered from the officers concerned?
MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, I do not believe that I need to make such a direction. It is implicit in the instructions that vehicles are not to be used for private purposes outside the ACT at public expense. It follows from that that if anybody has permission to use a vehicle outside the ACT it is at their expense. I do not think I need to issue a direction that does no more than reaffirm that.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .