2015/2016 Budget - Trinidad & Tobago

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

Firstly, Utt has moved past a levels as a requirement for higher study as has most countries in the british commonwealth, including our neighbors Guyana(through UG) and Jamaica(Utec). Secondly, utt was created as a facility to deal specifically with Manufacturing and its related disciplines,not aviation,fashion and other nonsense. Thirdly, ask any manager coming out of the industrial estate who they prefer, the theorists from uwi or practical engineers from utt. A Guyanese engineer who coordinated three hydroelectric plants at home said that uwi produces many good engineers and also a plethora of quacks. A levels is the worse prerequisite for engineering right now as it is so practical. They may know how to prove mathematically the efficiency of a transformer but cannot do a simple synchronization of phases. But that is the side note. Gate has a fifty-fiftu chance of staying the way it is. Politically, it may not make much sense. What needs serious attention are social programs. Cepep and Urp need to be revenue earners. As it is the employees their ate virtually wards of the state. The gas subsidy i think may be tweaked, not taken out completely. Something will have to be done about the foreign exchange market also. Gate could be tweaked by next year though, probably fifty/fifty payment plan could be installed which is better than nothing. One of the bad things about gate is uwi and utt now overload their programs with courses so as to maximize their profits.

Sir I must commend you this is an excellent post. But you did miss my point on where I said 80 to 90% of Engineering students drop out after year 1 in UTT I am not sure of it is the same for UWI. And this is a direct result of giving people without A levels an actual Engineering exams within just a month and a half of the first semester, and think they are going to know all of this in such a short time, any University that offers Engineering degrees to any tom dick and harry of the street without pre requisite of at least a B in A levels maths and science is just there to make money alone. (And yes a LOT of British Universities are also degree mills aswell, don't feel because in UK some universities don't require A levels this somehow makes it ok this just shows how incompetent the school really is)

I understand fully what you mean with practical engineers from UTT and the needs for our local sector. (I started a second degree now and I am studying Engineering at UTT) So what I am telling you is first hand experience. I am in noway saying I want gate to be removed as that puts me at a disadvantage. I am just pointing out the horrible flaws of this GATE and how tax payers are being abused by schools, employers, students etc. Also real universities ask for A level pre requisite for a reason because they hold a certain rating for percentage of students who actually graduate. All of this gives a school further recognition and respect from the international community.

Not that I actually want GATE to go back to dollar for dollar, but that does not change the fact that dollar for dollar is the best method for this program. What I would want personally is GATE to remain 100% free as it is now. But this does not mean that its not a burden on tax payers who are victims of one of the biggest con jobs in history of this country.

The other poster said it correct, the fastest way to earn money now is open a fly by night school and offer one of those quack ass "foreign" degrees that helped no one get a job. Just understand what I am telling you here is from experience this isn't something I am making up. It is devastating to take people who has failed all their A levels and put them to do an Engineering Degree, this makes no sense really, this is why UWI will always be far more respected internationally over all the other local schools. I have had UTT lecturers who told my class that our UTT Engineering degrees are nothing more than glorified technician diplomas and its designed to fill a certain role but to make no mistake in the field your boss will be a UWI graduate.

[Trinispougla]

Firstly, Utt has moved past a levels as a requirement for higher study as has most countries in the british commonwealth, including our neighbors Guyana(through UG) and Jamaica(Utec). Secondly, utt was created as a facility to deal specifically with Manufacturing and its related disciplines,not aviation,fashion and other nonsense. Thirdly, ask any manager coming out of the industrial estate who they prefer, the theorists from uwi or practical engineers from utt. A Guyanese engineer who coordinated three hydroelectric plants at home said that uwi produces many good engineers and also a plethora of quacks. A levels is the worse prerequisite for engineering right now as it is so practical. They may know how to prove mathematically the efficiency of a transformer but cannot do a simple synchronization of phases. But that is the side note. Gate has a fifty-fiftu chance of staying the way it is. Politically, it may not make much sense. What needs serious attention are social programs. Cepep and Urp need to be revenue earners. As it is the employees their ate virtually wards of the state. The gas subsidy i think may be tweaked, not taken out completely. Something will have to be done about the foreign exchange market also. Gate could be tweaked by next year though, probably fifty/fifty payment plan could be installed which is better than nothing. One of the bad things about gate is uwi and utt now overload their programs with courses so as to maximize their profits.

Sir I must commend you this is an excellent post. But you did miss my point on where I said 80 to 90% of Engineering students drop out after year 1 in UTT I am not sure of it is the same for UWI. And this is a direct result of giving people without A levels an actual Engineering exams within just a month and a half of the first semester, and think they are going to know all of this in such a short time, any University that offers Engineering degrees to any tom dick and harry of the street without pre requisite of at least a B in A levels maths and science is just there to make money alone. (And yes a LOT of British Universities are also degree mills aswell, don't feel because in UK some universities don't require A levels this somehow makes it ok this just shows how incompetent the school really is)

I understand fully what you mean with practical engineers from UTT and the needs for our local sector. (I started a second degree now and I am studying Engineering at UTT) So what I am telling you is first hand experience. I am in noway saying I want gate to be removed as that puts me at a disadvantage. I am just pointing out the horrible flaws of this GATE and how tax payers are being abused by schools, employers, students etc. Also real universities ask for A level pre requisite for a reason because they hold a certain rating for percentage of students who actually graduate. All of this gives a school further recognition and respect from the international community.

Not that I actually want GATE to go back to dollar for dollar, but that does not change the fact that dollar for dollar is the best method for this program. What I would want personally is GATE to remain 100% free as it is now. But this does not mean that its not a burden on tax payers who are victims of one of the biggest con jobs in history of this country.

The other poster said it correct, the fastest way to earn money now is open a fly by night school and offer one of those quack ass "foreign" degrees that helped no one get a job. Just understand what I am telling you here is from experience this isn't something I am making up. It is devastating to take people who has failed all their A levels and put them to do an Engineering Degree, this makes no sense really, this is why UWI will always be far more respected internationally over all the other local schools. I have had UTT lecturers who told my class that our UTT Engineering degrees are nothing more than glorified technician diplomas and its designed to fill a certain role but to make no mistake in the field your boss will be a UWI graduate.

Of course uwi will have a better reputation, it has been around for almost seventy years in two forms, ucwi and now uwi. Utt is less than fifteen years old yet the utilities engineering program is recognized by both IEEE and IMECHE. The reason it has trouble in trinidad could well be for reasons beyond academics and competence. I do however agree that students come to utt with weak backgrounds in mathematics and science and fail out. Right now I know people in utt five years now that still struggling to pass maths. But they don't affect gate. They have to pay for their coursesvif they're reapeting and can't access it if their GPA is under 2.0. Another thing is the foreign universities aren't quack schools. The work place however saturated with the programmes offered in TT. E g business administration, accounting, information technology. Only foreign school that not saturated is London externals. The United states offers university places to people with a high school diploms, without asking for AP(advanced placement) passes and the US is the hotbed of innovation. Which is why in the states the average age of entering university is 18, while ours is 19/20/21. That being said their system is more pointed as there are seperate classes for branches of higher mathematics.

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

^ yeah I know a lot of foreign are legit but a number of them are also quack. I understand it has a school in Trinidad selling UK computer degrees where you pay a "fee" to get guaranteed scholarship. And they call you on the phone as there is no brochure on their website. You have to fill out a form and they will call you about the guaranteed scholarship and first class honors for a certain price.

Their exams are also open book and if you miss it they give you the paper to go home and google the answers. They also offer 8 month MBAs etc I heard it can be had in even less time now aswell.

BTW one thing to note, UTT BSc Electrical Engineering or any BSc Engineering program is NOT recognized by the Board of Engineering of Trinidad and Tobago. so what this means is T&TEC will NOT hire you if you have a BSc in Electrical Engineering from UTT they will take a UWI grad over you very easily.

And I suspect it is likely to remain so for decades to come, simply because UTT was designed as an alternative to UWI, lets be real I am not good enough to get into UWI and I accept that, so I gracefully took my place in UTT, but UTT's exam papers are a complete JOKE compared to that of UWI. Engineering in UTT is A levels maths max. In UWI its actual real university level calculus like what is found in Stanford and MIT. I don't take things personally I prefer the truth even of its offensive. I know this does NOT mean a UWI grad will get the local job over the UTT grad but I am just pointing out the amazing qualify of education you get from UWI vs other schools.

I find it comical how people talk up "foreign engineering degrees" when UWI is just as good if not better than most of them. Since UWI's Engineering programs are triple accredited it would suggest that UWI's degrees in Engineering are better than majority of US and UK universities. I have looked at actual Past Exam papers for Signals and Systems from different universities and compared them with UWI

My findings are UWI is near the level of University of London and just below that of Cambridge and Oxford. My uncle has his Msc and Phd in Physics from Oxford and he got through to those post graduate programs using his UWI BSc in Physics first class honors. University of Oxford only recognize a handful of universities on this planet for post graduate programs and UWI happens to be one of them, what does that tell you about UWI?

[Trinispougla]

As I said, uwi is over sixty years old, of course they will be better recognized by the world, they have been around for a long time. As I also said, the professors in utt aren't utt graduates they're uwi graduates and a couple outsiders from India and Europe. But I also said that uwi makes theorists who have little understanding of how systems work usually. Rather they know how it is supposed to work,mathematically and otherwise.And this is a recent phenomenon.Uwi enginneers are exceptional. But I can also can tell you that I know several engineers from uwi, some holding phd's currently being investigated for their culpability in the serious injuring of workers. A senior person in at a local company himself told me they are having serious trouble with the competence of some of their engineers. Besides, it was not always necessary to have a degree in t&tec to become an engineer. Some did tec diplomas and got the position by seniority. Those are some of the finest engineers in the country if you ask anybody in t&tec. So what, uwi are difficult, I have heard their PhD program is among the world's most difficult. But here what chief, three quarters of those things you never encounter in real life. Reason being, certainly for electrical and mech, trinidad does not produce any sort of electrical or mechanical components, parts or machines. Trinidad only produces hydrocarbon based products,methanol etc. So that already cuts the engineers job to power engineering and maintainance or redesigning of electrical components(which is a very rare circumstance) and telecommunications. Most of what engineers do in t&tec is that and synchronization. Utt degrees are recognized by two international organizations that are usually the standard for electrical and mechanical engineering. Utt process engineering program and petroleum engineering program are recognized internationally. By Icheme and other bodies. Utt was not designed as an alternative to uwi, it was created to fill a particular need, probably after nonsense like aviation and carnival studies came it appeared so. But utt was specifically envisioned by ken julien, a chemical engineer of international renown and known as an energy czar. It was specifically to fill spaces at point Lisas that's why their main campus is their, together with the experimental feed to natural gas plant. Utt was not meant for things like aviation, carnival etc. It was not supposed to be an alternative it was for the industrial estate. The idea actually started in the mid nineties, the first campus was in couva and my cousin was among the first intake of students. He now works in Namibia with repsol. It fizzled out with the change in government and was revived a couple years later because the then government saw the need at pt Lisa's for technicians and engineers. Actually the act for a national university was proclaimed in 1995.
Besides many of those foreign universities are responsible for innovations that have made engineering much easier. Trini's always say when they go to states,that american exams are the easiest exams they have ever done. Yet still the vast majority of their students pass and go to university provided their financial situation allows them too. CXC still contenting itself with 60-65 percent passes in maths across the region. Would you say that the education system in the states is inferior because their exams are easier? Utt could be considered a joke now only because the governer is probably the only university head in the world without a PhD and the board has not a single engineer on it

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

wow I have finally met my match in word count.

I have read your post and I understand what you are saying. You are right, UWI has a lot of age on their side so they do have an automatic advantage because of this.

[Trinispougla]

wow I have finally met my match in word count.

I have read your post and I understand what you are saying. You are right, UWI has a lot of age on their side so they do have an automatic advantage because of this.

I would agree with you that utt has lost its way. The fashion and music cool but all de aviation and other things, not that they are worthless,far from it but they are 1) unnecessary and 2) unprofitable, uwi already produces electronic engineers and computer scientists to deal with that as one of my friends did when he started. Utt's mandate(at least with engineering) should solely be for manufacturing

[Daran]

Trinispougla & EFFECTIC DESIGNS

Thanks for the good contributions. However, there are some points I disagree on.

Firstly, UWI is in no way a world class institute. I myself used to hold this false image of UWI being just as good as top Universities in US/UK. For the record, I did Engineering at UWI, then an MSc in Manchester, then enrolled in a PhD, dropped due to a good job offer.......this was years ago. Any UK Engineering program is far more rigorous, up to date, challenging and most actually force the students to think on their own as opposed to cramming and using drafts.

Now UWI isn't as bad as I just made it seem (hence why UWI graduates are accepted in top tier institutions for post grad). However, when starting my MSc in Manchester, the level of 'catch up' I needed to do compared to my peers (not only from the UK, but all over the world) was astounding. Especially in regard to math and programming. Only the African students seemed to be in my boat. This is echoed by many others I know from who did MScs in top institutions.

I believe one of the biggest downfalls of UWI is their quality of research. Looking at the output from entire departments in UWI, I see sometimes a handful of publications in journals/conferences per year with most being simple and what I term 'filler' research. At Manchester, my 31 year old Thesis supervisor had more publications per year that an entire department in UWI.

However, you can't attribute this to people at UWI, many do in fact try. However, for many reasons our local environment isn't very condusive to research. Why? Our lecturers are not employed to research but to teach, then to consult in the local industry. Another reason I've noticed (and it's not just UWI lectures but with most 'educated' trinis) is their delusions of grandeur, made 'read' by simply being the big fish in a small pond. This leads to stagnation of real development, as there's little competition and incentive to do good work.

Onto UTT which is a double edged sword. Firstly, it was needed in our local industry. HOWEVER, they took decent technician qualifications offered by JohnD and the like, and made it into a watered down associate degree.

Many UTT grads do not know what they are, they call themselves engineers, but lack even basic year 1 engineering skills and knowledge. Is is a mistake to have UTT compete with UWI in engineering, they fill different roles and should explicitly say this upfront, rather than appearing to be as gimmicky as all those fly-by-night Business Administration degrees. UTT as an engineering institution is an utter failure and should not attempt to replicate what UWI offers. I've seen UTT 'Mphil' theses (plu. thesis) that looked like it was put together by a CXC student, done in Microsoft word and replete with spelling and grammatical errors (note these were theses that scored over 60/100). Our resources would have been better spent by strengthening UWI's existing facilities and research.

Also note, those arguing that A-Levels is not needed for engineering clearly has no idea about the rigors involved in real engineering, however this isn't your fault. It is our local work environment. What we call 'engineers' in Trinidad are mere over qualified technician jobs with very little true engineering ever done locally.

Our local job market is now flooded with persons who appear over qualified on paper, which is made even confusing by HR personnel who see no difference between an MSc from a Russel Group University an one from UTT.


In conclusion, I firmly believe GATE should be cut and reverted to dollar-for-dollar at UWI/UTT.

The money saved needs to then be invested into proper research at UWI and also for a post graduate fund where suitably qualified candidates will be offered limited to full scholarships to foreign universities for Masters and PhD degrees.

[hoverauto]

Steups, this whole tread turning into tl:dr.

[redmanjp]

i hope the new govt. taking heed of the global economic situation

that rapid rail project had better be put off for some time

http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/11/investing/next-bubble-german-finance-minister-schaeuble/

German Finance Minister warns of market bubble
Warning: a bubble could be back in the stock market.
Germany's Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble is the latest to raise concerns that financial markets are getting unhealthy.
"If you look at what's going on [on] a global level, this increasing public and private liquidity on the financial markets ... we are moving to the next bubble," Schaeuble said Friday at a conference organized by the American Council on Germany, according to Dow Jones.
This isn't the first time Schaeuble has raised the caution flag, but it takes on added significance as the U.S. Federal Reserve meets next week to decide whether to raise interest rates from its near 0% level for the first time since December 2008.
Related: Loud chorus of voices tell Fed: 'Don't do it'
"I think we should learn lesson(s) from crises we had," Schaeuble said Friday.
The Finance Minister has warned that there will be consequences from the easy money policies of the European Central Bank and Fed. Both banks slashed interest rates to historically low levels after the financial crisis and have kept them there in an effort to jumpstart economic growth.
However, the low rates have also caused investors and businesses to pump money into the stock market and other riskier assets.
"We have seen that monetary policy -- and finance ministers as well as central bank governors agree on that -- can't solve the problems we face," Schaeuble said. He stressed that many nations need to push forth more difficult structural reforms as well.
Many prominent voices, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, are urging the Fed not to increase rates next week.
While Schaeuble didn't comment explicitly on what he thinks the Fed should do when it meets September 16 and 17, his comments made it sound like he would be in favor of a rate hike sooner rather than later.

Schaeuble's remarks come as a prominent hedge fund manager David Tepper also raised the prospect of a less easy money environment. Tepper said he was "not as bullish" now on stocks.
His waning enthusiasm is due to weaker corporate earnings and the global reality that money is unlikely to keep flowing into financial markets like it has been. The era of low interest rates around the world and central banks doing quantitative easing policies will come to an end soon, he argues.
"We're talking about the market has to come to certain new realities," Tepper said Thursday on CNBC. "When you change the flows, or you may be changing the flows, you better be thinking about changing your positions."

[nervewrecker]

Steups, this whole tread turning into tl:dr.

[K74T]

From PriceSmart essays to GATE and Universities essays.

[Daran]

Don't worry we've got Colms vast experience to handle this.

[Trinispougla]

I expect the subsidy on gas to be tweaked dbnot removed. The thing is, this budget could be very tricky. In light of the fact that oil prices are dependent on three factors, depletion of the shale oil and gas markets, the economic recovery of China, the largest buyer and the end of brinkmanship from OPEC. Two of these scenarios could play out during the year,the one unlikely being the recovery of China. If OPEC cuts back on production, the oil price and more importantly the gas price will go up. What I did hear was that departments in the various ministries are being asked to send in their estimates for 2016 covering only bare necessities. Which means probably projects could be postponed until the price goes up. I remember when Britain was in financial constraints, thatcher sold off most of the state owned companies to bring hard currency to the coffers. Somehow, the job losses that accompanied privatisation barely affected her bid for reelection. But that can't work in Trinidad. We aren't that mature. Probably cepep and urp would be modified to become revenue earners or at least a human resource for some other sector. I know the reasoning behind the lowering of vat is so that people maybe willing enough to spend more. I guess they were looking at the Netherlands when they dropped vat to one percent. It could work or it could fail miserably. I also expect incentives for farmers to produce locally to combat the food import bill which no doubt played a part in the dark situation we have found ourselves in. Laptops out for sure at least for now. Sad reality is that TT is now realizing that like Chile with copper, they aren't a major player on the market and as such we can't influence international prices. Gate is viewed somehow as the chief example of bad spending by some economists. To me educating your people would be worth the spending. As I said in an earlier post however, I think the system has been taken advantage of. Cuba is a country for the last twenty or so years has had free educatjon with little or no foreign exchange since the crash of their major trading partner, the Soviet union. The system however i believe has limits.The areas covered have to be in line with the national development goals. Something similar could happen here

[nervewrecker]

Job cuts

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

[skylinechild]

i wonder..with all this talk of job cuts and salary cuts...is the govt going to curtail their own spending and personal salaries...??

an MP salary is like what 30K...with benefits.?
we all know these benefits housing..transport food & entertainment... etc
they are "benefits" to them but someone has to foot the bill for it...john and jane public.

how many MP's are going to say lets remove the benefits..temporarily...until the cash flow is normalized....

yes i know that if all mp's did it...it may only amount to a couple millions..or hundred million....which is more than what we had before..

[1UZFE]

Well d PP did someting like that. They contributed a percentage of their salary to d children's life fund i think.

[Zedenka]

I wonder if they will increase the stipends for OJT trainees and by how much? Anyone knows or have an estimate? Just curious

[Redman]

Don't worry we've got Colms vast experience to handle this.

Like Howai....or Dooks????

What could be worse than running deficits 4 years straight to fund an ELECTIVE economic expansion...
GORTT CHOSE to run deficits in a period where the world environment dictated a different policy decision.
How did Howai and Dooks vast experience and know how help prevent the mismanagement and policy failures that we now have to confront?

My point is not UNC/PNM....its that ANY minister is instructed by the PM and whatever policy the party decides is the way forward....

So Colms ability in finance isnt as relevant as the overall party position and its policy direction.

[make meh care]

they dont need a finance minister since everybody else like they know how to dictate the way forward for this country but you know everybody know how to spend money but not invest for the future.

[Dizzy28]

I wonder if they will increase the stipends for OJT trainees and by how much? Anyone knows or have an estimate? Just curious

Isn't it currently
$7,200 Post Graduate
$6,250 Graduate
$4,500 Diploma
$3,600 CAPE
How much more than that you want inexperienced persons to be paid?

[Zedenka]

Yes that is the current stipend rates for different qualifications. But i heard from someone that in their manifesto they were increasing it. There are a lot of persons who although are qualified and have experience cant even get a job, i know a few so they decided to go OJT.

[Zedenka]

Got this from their manifesto.

[nervewrecker]

What they say and what they do is always two different things eh.

Said free wifi for all too if im not mistaken.

[make meh care]

Got this from their manifesto.

they are making cut in pay for contract employees . I highly doubt this will happen.

[Dizzy28]

Yes that is the current stipend rates for different qualifications. But i heard from someone that in their manifesto they were increasing it. There are a lot of persons who although are qualified and have experience cant even get a job, i know a few so they decided to go OJT.

That is a failure of the job market.
The OJT programme was meant to be an avenue for inexperienced persons to get job experience hence one of its criteria is a cutoff age for it of 35 years.
The current salary ranges are suitable for the purposes of the programme based on market conditions for wages.

[ingalook]

I may be in the minority here but, I think that MPs' salaries are far too low

You take people from the private sector who are making MILLIONS
You pay them THOUSANDS
THEN you put BILLIONS in their hands and tell them not to touch

Then you wonder why there is corruption

Don't give me that "for the good of the country" altruistic Mother Theresa BS, does that exist in the real world?

Many of these ministers were doctors and lawyers etc. before taking their portfolio - they and their families are accustomed to a certain lifestyle, it is naive to think they will suddenly start living on the salary of a mid-level bank manager.

Paying the ministers (and the PM) a bit better will cost us a few more million every year, but it may end up saving us BILLIONS

[RASC]

You guys are TOTALLY missing the point of a rapid rail system if all you can speak about is "when is it being paid off"

[RASC]

I may be in the minority here but, I think that MPs' salaries are far too low

You take people from the private sector who are making MILLIONS
You pay them THOUSANDS
THEN you put BILLIONS in their hands and tell them not to touch

Then you wonder why there is corruption

Don't give me that "for the good of the country" altruistic Mother Theresa BS, does that exist in the real world?

Many of these ministers were doctors and lawyers etc. before taking their portfolio - they and their families are accustomed to a certain lifestyle, it is naive to think they will suddenly start living on the salary of a mid-level bank manager.

Paying the ministers (and the PM) a bit better will cost us a few more million every year, but it may end up saving us BILLIONS

Been speaking about this with regards to the police service also.
Again don't expect intelligent convo.

They live in fantasy land. One guy even suggesting scrap all luxury SUV's and give them TIIDAS...

I can't even with these people anymore.

[The_Honourable]

I remember when Britain was in financial constraints, thatcher sold off most of the state owned companies to bring hard currency to the coffers. Somehow, the job losses that accompanied privatisation barely affected her bid for reelection.

There are state own companies that is causing a financial strain on the government. For example, CNMG have been making a loss since inception (much like its predecessor National Broadcasting Network which ran TTT) and should be sold. The Government can then focus on maintaining and expanding GISL (Channel 4).

Here is a listing of all the state agencies:

http://finance.gov.tt/wp-content/upload ... t-List.pdf

[York]

I may be in the minority here but, I think that MPs' salaries are far too low

You take people from the private sector who are making MILLIONS
You pay them THOUSANDS
THEN you put BILLIONS in their hands and tell them not to touch

Then you wonder why there is corruption

Don't give me that "for the good of the country" altruistic Mother Theresa BS, does that exist in the real world?

Many of these ministers were doctors and lawyers etc. before taking their portfolio - they and their families are accustomed to a certain lifestyle, it is naive to think they will suddenly start living on the salary of a mid-level bank manager.

Paying the ministers (and the PM) a bit better will cost us a few more million every year, but it may end up saving us BILLIONS

Been speaking about this with regards to the police service also.
Again don't expect intelligent convo.

They live in fantasy land. One guy even suggesting scrap all luxury SUV's and give them TIIDAS...

I can't even with these people anymore.

well what the hell they driving Prados for when a $200k - $300k vehicle will do just fine.

money wasted on each vehicle in the public service can build a house or pay for an operation for someone...

they quickly forget about serving the people and ONLY focus on serving themselves!