Daff needs lifts from exporters

Things have reached an extremely
sad state at the department of
forestry and fisheries (Daff)
inspection services (IS) – with
inspectors effectively having to
bum lifts from the exporters whose
boxes they have to examine.
And the reason, according to IS
acting manager, Naresh Naidoo, is
that their “operational budget has
been depleted”.
It’s got so bad, he told FTW,
that they have the cars, but not the
money to run them.
“As with other regional offices,”
he added, “we are appealing to
the private sector to partner with
us to ensure continuity of service
delivery. The request from senior
management is for exporters to
provide transport for the inspectors
to the inspection points from our
Durban regional office and back.”
This forced him to send out a
begging letter to his “esteemed
clients” explaining that “due to
dire budgetary constraints” normal
service could only be provided to
the end of last business week. After
this, “we will be unable to make
available inspectors at inspection
points due to the grounding of
vehicles”.
Naidoo has been busy trying “to
twist the arms” of his superiors and
get them to approve the IS going
into negative figures – enough to
be able to provide at least a basic
service.
“By law we are mandated to
conduct a specific service and they
(the senior management) have got
to do something about it,” he said.
And, with the government, and
therefore all its bodies, in equally
dire financial straits, Naidoo is not
at all optimistic about his budget
next financial year being too
promising.
He pleaded to his clients that this
situation was beyond the control of
IS “and we welcome any suggestions
or options or collaborations that
could help lessen the impact of
the logistical crisis that we find
ourselves in”.