FOLLOWING Treasury’s
decision to repeal its
National Travel Policy
and cancel its national
government tender, agents
report that their government
accounts are in a shambles,
demanding Treasury keep up
its end of the bargain and
implement the systems it
committed to under its initial
negotiations with TMCs.
Last week TNW reported
that Treasury had repealed
its National Travel Policy
and cancelled its national
tender for government
business. Government
departments were instructed
that the tender be used as a
template to publish their own
tenders. Treasury now says
government departments
are reviewing and making
suggestions to be included
in a final template. Treasury
is expected to send the
revised tender template to
departments by October 31.
These departments are to
‘tweak’ it and publish their
own tenders. According
to Treasury, the revised
tender template will also
allow agents to quote their
service fees based either
on a transaction and/or
management fee model,
according to the needs of
the department.
Treasury told TNW the cost
containment measures in NT
Instruction No.3 of 2016/17
(which states that TMCs are
not allowed to receive
any rebates, overrides
or volume-driven target
incentives) should still apply,
regardless of whether the
policy has been temporarily
repealed or not. “The
measures come from the
Auditor General and have
to be incorporated into
travel policy. Government
won’t do business with
TMCs who aren’t willing to
follow the cost containment
instructions,” Treasury says.
But agents say the
constant back and forth has
caused confusion amongst
both TMCs and national
departments with the worry
that no resolution on a fair
remuneration model will be
reached.
Agents spoke to TNW
on condition of anonymity,
fearing reprisal.
“I have accounts that
are refusing to pay service
fees as they say Treasury
didn’t consult with them.
They say the directive
issued by Treasury wasn’t
clear enough on how they
should remunerate agents,
meanwhile our agency is
bleeding money,” says
agent X.
“This policy was meant to
be the light at the end of the
tunnel and now with all this
confusion everything is going
back to the original way of
working and travel agencies
are going to once again,
give their services away for
nothing,” agent Y says.
“When Treasury initially
met with travel agents
they painted a picture of
transparency and gave
the impression that they
would have the necessary
systems and technologies
in place to monitor
payments and centralise
processes internally so
that all departments could
stick to the Public Finance
Management Act and
alleviate the challenges
agencies experience with
payments that exceed 30
days. A lot has been done
on the agencies’ side to
assist with curbing costs
and being transparent, but
where are the commitments
Treasury promised to
deliver?” says agent Z.
Ceo of Asata, Otto de Vries,
says after last engaging
with Treasury in May, Asata
has again requested a
meeting with Treasury but
has received no commitment
yet. “There’s been plenty of
consultation with internal
stakeholders. Treasury has
no issue in delaying the
policy implementation date by
almost a year for government
departments, yet the same
courtesy is not extended to
the industry,” says Otto.
