|
Government Vehicles On The Blink
Of the 5.000 vehicles registered
to the Poder Ejecutivo, one half
of them do not have the required
"revisión tecnica" - the annual
vehicular inspection - and there
is no doubt that many of them
are on the streets daily.
And according to figures
released by the Ministerio de
Obras Públicas y Transportes (MOPT),
half of the government vehicles
submitted for the inspection do
not pass the first time around.
The most common problem with
government vehicles according to
the MOPT is suspension, gas
emissions and faulty brakes. And
worst yest, of all the
government vehicles inspected,
the worst cases are those
operated by the police - both
the Fuerza Pública and the
Policía de Tránsito, all due to
lack of regular maintenance.
According to German Marín,
director of the Policía de
Tránsito, there are 120 cars
parked because there is no money
to repair them. That comes to
one third of the 360 cars the
Policía de Tránsito has
available. The Consejo de
Seguridad Vial (COSEVI) recently
gave the Policía de Tránsito
¢150 million colones to make the
repairs, but according to Marín
it just isn' enough.
For his part, Osvaldo Alpízar,
the new chief of the Fuerza
Pública acknowledged that the
police force is facing a "sad"
situation as some 600 police
vehicles are in desperate need
of repair. Alpízar added that he
is aware that his force just
doesn't have enough vehicles to
patrol the streets and with so
many vehicles broken down, the
situation is made worse.
|
|
