NO MATTER how noble the purpose is, government vehicles can not be used by government employees to take an ailing relative to the nearest hospital, even in emergency cases, rules out the government’s Task Force Red Plate.
The Tanodbayan, under Honorable Ma. Merceditas Gutierrez created the task force aimed at ensuring that government vehicles are used in accordance with existing laws.
The task force is the government’s implementing arm in checking abuse despite implemented austerity measures. They spread the dragnet, which widened recently to ensnare abusive employees using government vehicles despite express instructions to cut on fuel consumption in the midst of a fuel crisis.
According to the task force, in no case shall a government employee use a government vehicle to further his private ends, unless he has obtained a permission to do so from the proper authority.
The subject austerity measure also bans government vehicles from fetching children or relatives to and from school, even if it is only along the way to office.
The task force said it is a declared policy that government vehicles should be used solely for the furtherance of official business. The same holds true even in cases where the employee himself answers for the gas of the government vehicle.
In this light, a government vehicle, when not in use can not be brought home and have it put in the private garage, because by general rule, a government vehicle should be put in a garage provided by the agency of the government the vehicle is assigned.
But, by way of exceptions, a government vehicle may be brought home in cases where the agency does not have a garage or where it is more economical to bring home the vehicle, cites the task force on Sec. 361 of the General Auditing and Accounting Manual [e-4], GAAM and Commission on Audit circular 85-55.
Then, unless properly authorized, a government employee may bring a government vehicle to places like markets, restaurants, hotels, resorts, or similar places outside official route.
The driver however should present a mandatory Driver’s Trip Ticket duly accomplished before the vehicle can be used.
The absence of Driver’s Trip Ticket to authorize the use of a government vehicle outside official route, or outside office hours, or on a Sunday or legal holiday or by persons other that those authorized to use them raises prima facie evidence of its private use, the task force said in Section 361[d-1], GAAM; Sec. 2, EO 418. (rachiu/PIA)
