Government's 2007 fuel bill was €3.75 million

The government spent €3.75 million on fuel last year, according to a report seen by The Sunday Times, though the figure was down from €4.36 million in 2006.

More control and monitoring is being exercised to bring down the bill. The report also shows that total transport costs in 2007 declined by 8.6 per cent on the preceding year, with the main contributor being a drop of 14 per cent in its outlay on fuel.

The figures are contained in a report compiled by the Financial Management Monitoring Unit - set up in November 2004 - which had within its remit the control of government-owned vehicles.

This led to a number of directives issued to contain expenditure on government transport. These included a directive that no government cars were to be replaced unless there were exceptional circumstances. The FMMU was also responsible for the setting up of a fleet management system (FMS), intended to be the main source of management and control of all the vehicles utilised by ministries and departments.

As from last June, fuel quotas for general use vehicles were implemented and each vehicle monitored has a continuous calculation of its fuel consumption together with graphs displaying fuel usage over time.

During the Budget speech for 2005, the Prime Minister said that no cars were to be replaced unless there were exceptional circumstances. Any cars that were purchased or leased had to have the approval of the FMMU.

The FMMU issued a number of directives whereby ministries, departments and entities were encouraged to purchase rather than lease unless they could prove better financial benefits through leasing by presenting a discounted cash flow exercise.

Ministries, departments and entities were also told that the maximum on-the-road prices, engine capacity and fuel quotas were still applicable and that these applied both to purchased and leased cars.

Other directives were issued with regards to taxation on fringe benefits, where ministries, departments and entities were alerted that it was their responsibility not to allow officers to take cars home unless they were entitled to them and that the appropriate amount of tax on fringe benefits was withheld from employees' salaries. The system has an audit trail which will log all transactions by users.

However, despite all these measures, cars used by ministers and senior government officials can still regularly be seen parked with their engines and air conditioners running with no one but the driver sitting inside.