Deputy Minister of Finance shares his thoughts about going to work by taxi

On the afternoon of October 11, at the 3rd quarter 2016 press conference of the Ministry of Finance, Deputy Minister Nguyen Huu Chi shared about the policy of allocating expenses for public vehicle use of the ministry, and his own commuting after receiving the allocating expenses.

Illustration photo.

According to Deputy Minister Nguyen Huu Chi, the policy of allocating funds for the use of public vehicles for work was introduced in 2007, with a roadmap for gradually allocating funds to leaders who meet the standards for using public vehicles. After that, the Prime Minister issued Decision 59/2007, 61/2010, and Decision 32/2015, all of which have policies on allocating public vehicles, but all of them are voluntary incentives, so few people implement them. The Ministry of Finance has discussed and decided to allocate public vehicles to ministry leaders.

“My house is 10km from the ministry headquarters. I go back and forth twice a day, 22 days a month. Each kilometer costs 15,000 VND, so each month I get a travel allowance of 6.6 million VND,” said Mr. Chi.

On the first day of work when implementing the public car contract (October 1), Mr. Chi was seen getting off the gate of the Ministry of Finance from a taxi. According to this leader, many people asked him if he had any problems going to work by taxi, he replied that it was normal.

“Going to work by taxi is very normal, it has been agreed to be implemented, but I am very afraid of the press talking about it all the time. If I don't take this car, I will take another car, what's the problem? When I was the Chairman of the People's Committee of Tien Giang province, there were times when I took a Honda (motorbike - PV), a bicycle, no problem. Seeing me getting out of a taxi on the way home from work, some people asked me if I really took a taxi? I ​​said, it's real, what's the problem. Some people also said that if I don't take a public car, how can I get to work on time, I'm afraid of losing documents, white-plate cars are not allowed into the office... those are just reasons. I go to work from 7am, sometimes I make an appointment for a taxi but they don't come, I take another taxi, no problem", Mr. Chi said.

According to Mr. Chi, after a period of time the Ministry of Finance implements the travel budget allocation with the leaders, the Ministry will summarize and report to the Government.

After implementing the allocation of funds for using official vehicles for work for leaders at the level of Deputy Ministers, General Departments and equivalent, the Ministry of Finance has issued a document requesting units with vehicles serving their positions to switch to the allocation regime to review and rearrange the team of official drivers. The units that must review and rearrange include: Ministry Office, representative office of Ministry in Ho Chi Minh City, General Department of Customs, Tax, State Reserve, State Treasury, State Securities Commission, and departments under the Ministry of Finance.

Accordingly, units will conduct a comprehensive review of the number of drivers serving general work and the number of drivers serving assigned positions. On that basis, develop a plan to arrange and reassign drivers according to the principle of gradually reducing the current number. At the same time, arrange and transfer from places with surplus to places with shortage, gradually transfer drivers serving vehicles with assigned positions to drivers serving general work or assign them to other jobs.

According to the decision of the Ministry of Finance, from October 1, deputy ministers of this ministry and leaders of units with salary coefficients of 1.25 or higher will implement a lump sum for travel expenses. The person with the lowest lump sum is 3.96 million VND/month, the highest is 9.9 million VND/month.

According to Tien Phong