News
13th April 10
4/13/2010
Fermanagh & South Tyrone MLA Tom Elliott, has said that he has been informed of a mistake by government in paying motor tax, which means that three hundred vehicles belonging to AFBI are currently off road.
Fermanagh & South Tyrone MLA Tom Elliott, has said that he has been informed of a mistake by government in paying motor tax, which means that three hundred vehicles belonging to AFBI are currently off road. This results with a number of serious questions must now be asked and answers sought.
In a statement the Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA said: "The suggestion that hundreds of vehicles belonging to AFBI, which is linked to DARD, have to stay off the road due to a mistake involving payment of tax is obviously very concerning. While in the case of an individual driver such a blunder can be quickly rectified, when such a large number of state owned vehicles are involved things are not so simple. Indeed, I understand that it may take weeks for the payment to be sorted out and that during that time the vehicles, which are needed by AFBI officials for field work due to begin shortly, will not be able to be used. This means that we are potentially looking at a situation which could very quickly evolve into an extremely expensive mistake."
"A number of questions now must be answered. This includes who was responsible for the mistake? What action is being taken to rectify the situation? How long till we can expect the problem to be sorted? And how much money will be lost due to the vehicles having to stay off the road? I am sure that I won’t be the only person seeking the answers. Transparency is absolutely vital if we are to have the efficient, effective government which the public rightly demand."
"Whoever made this mistake must be held accountable. The public don’t want excuses. They have a right to know what happened, given the prospect of thousands of pounds of their money being wasted, and I trust that both DARD and AFBI officials will work to get to the bottom off this matter and provide explanations as soon as possible."
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