Dear Editor, The 25 EV (electric vehicle) cars bought with public funds for the Pacific Islands Leaders Forum Meeting is a continuing story.

Seven have been offered for sale. We are told that the other 18 are to ‘replace’ existing government cars. So, it seems a bit overdue for advertisements offering the 18 replaced vehicles for public tender.

Or, have 18 more public servants now been handed cars to treat as personal, making them happy CIP supporters? Would be interesting to hear from any reader who can tell the taxpaying public the cost to maintain and fuel one car for one year on Rarotonga.

(Name and address supplied)

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Financial Secretary Garth Henderson replies – I am the chairperson of the Capital Development Fund (CDF) committee that assesses capital requests or requests from government agencies for capital equipment that include vehicles. These requests are carefully considered within the context of the appropriation which for Financial Year 2023/24 sits at $300,000. These requests are also considered within the context of several government policies including the Procurement Policy, the Capital Distribution Fund Policy, and the Fleet Management Policy. Agencies requesting for capital equipment need to show proper assets management in place and full justification for these requests. The assignment of the EV vehicles not sold to the general public, into the government fleet will be determined within the CDF process as the same prerequisites for assignment are required. Agencies have to show proper asset management and full justification. The assessment of CDF requests was completed last week and the Committee will likely confirm approvals later this week.

In the matter of disposal of old government vehicles that are to be replaced by the EVs, the general public will recall the government vehicle tender last year and pre-Covid, where vehicles were consolidated into one bulk sale by tender process. We have found that this consolidation, ensures the proper disposal of government assets in accordance with the government financial policies and procedures manual is undertaken and is fair and transparent. I expect that once we can confirm sufficient government vehicles and equipment for disposal, we will organise another bulk sale process.