New transport scheme will save millions

THREE NEW agencies have been developed to control cross-border transportation, maritime safety and national roads under the wing of the Department of Transport. All three will be independent, commercially run and operate at arm's length from government.
At the same time existing staff in the department has been slashed by two-thirds, saving the government in the region of R120 million a year.
Transport minister Mac Maharaj announced these changes in Pretoria recently, stating that from a complement of 1100 posts, DoT is now left with 370 staff members, who will be reduced by a further 120 posts when a fourth agency, a new civil aviation authority, comes into being on October 1 this year.
The three new bodies are the SA Cross-Border Road Transport Agency, the SA Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) and the SA National Roads Agency (Sanra). Their formal establishment, said Maharaj, was the culmination of 'a quiet revolution that has taken place since we came into office.'
One of the areas identified early was the issuing of cross-border permits for the transportation of both passengers and cargo by road to neighbouring states. It had been bureaucratically done for years without any correlation between the price of the permit and cost of producing it.
The department estimates that by establishing the new agency it will save R14 million annually through its informal subsidy of the previous system. The new agency will work on a cost recovery basis and any profits will be ploughed back through a price reduction in the next financial year.
Government will retain regulatory control through business plans that each agency will have to submit to the minister along with performance contracts between the board and the minister and the c.e.o. and the board.
We expect that Samsa will save R22 million as the taxpayer will no longer subsidise the shipping industry, says Maharaj, while R34 million is expected to be saved when the civil aviation agency comes into operation. He added that the roads agency is expected to save government R20 million a year.
The biggest saving, however, is the R50 million annually from the scrapping of posts in the department.
About 292 people will receive a voluntary severance package. Other staff were transferred into the private sector as functions were outsourced. Out of 283 jobs offered in the new agencies, only one member of the staff refused to leave the public service, said the minister.
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By Leonard Neill