Government continues enforcement of its new Vehicle Policy 2025

The Government of Belize has formally adopted a new Vehicle Policy 2025, a detailed framework aimed at improving how government vehicles are managed, used, maintained, and monitored across the public service. The policy was compiled by the Assets and Utilities Management Unit (AUMU) of the Ministry of Finance, with input from the Attorney General’s Ministry and the Ministry of Public Service and applies to all public officers and departments that operate government-owned vehicles.  Officials say the policy is part of a broader effort to enhance transparency, curtail misuse of public assets, and ensure that vehicles purchased with taxpayer funds are used strictly for official duties.  The Vehicle Policy 2025 establishes that government vehicles are public assets entrusted to public officers solely for official duties and must be used with care and accountability. It clearly defines roles such as Accounting Officer, Designated Officer, and Authorized Driver, outlining who is responsible for vehicle control, record-keeping, maintenance, and compliance tracking. Vehicles are assigned based on operational needs and may only be operated by authorized drivers who have valid government driver permits and defensive driving training. The policy prohibits personal use of government vehicles and stipulates checks on fuel use, roadworthiness, safety compliance, and authorized journeys. Perhaps most importantly, the policy introduces a Government Vehicle Tracking System to monitor usage and enforces penalties for breaches of procedure. Back in July when reports of austerity measures surfaced, Minister of the Public Service, Henry Charles Usher, outlined the government’s intentions to end misuse of vehicles, increase monitoring, and foster a culture of responsibility among public officers.

Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Public Service: “One of the recommendations coming out of the cost saving committee, and this was previously in the cost saving committee, I think it was in 2015, 2020, and now it’s in their recommendations again to put in place a vehicle management tracking system. I can say that that tracking system has been implemented. I think so far about 750 vehicles do have the trackers on them, and they can do the services that you referred to, they can note when someone, a driver is going over a certain speed, actually a warning comes up in the vehicle if they go above a certain speed. If the driver is idling, the vehicle can be shut down. The vehicle can be shut down for the weekend, et cetera. So we’re hoping that we can see savings from this and the unions who chair the cost saving committee also believe that we can see savings if we utilize this system properly. As to the culture, I hope that it will allow for a change in terms of the vehicle usage.”

Love News understands that the government plans to roll out training programmes for drivers, formalize vehicle tracking mechanisms, and revise the policy periodically based on operational feedback and emerging needs.