Source: www.rta.ae
Since 2008, the Public Transport Agency at the Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) had embarked on several initiatives aiming at cutting expenditures and augmenting revenues under RTA Strategic Plan, declared the CEO of RTA Public Transport Agency Eisa Abdul-Rahman Al Dosari.
“The plan developed by the Agency comprised several effective strategies that included several key aspects, namely: setting up work teams concerned with cutting expenditure and soaring revenue, unleashing awareness & educative programs among employees of the Agency, encouraging employees to become more creative, reviewing initiatives carried out in 2008 & 2009, reducing operational cost by 20% and boosting revenues by 7% in 2010” said Al Dosari.
“The Agency formed 8 internal work teams at the departmental level of the Agency to launch and carry out awareness & educative campaigns. For this end the Agency developed an electronic program to capture all information related to expenditure cut & revenue increase, set out the essential requirements of expenditure cut & revenue growth as a foundation for the preparing the operational plan, diffused the concept of value engineering to improve the quality, enhance the productivity and reduce the operational costs at all work sites, besides organizing regular brain-storming sessions at the level of all organizational units of the Agency.
It also undertook a key step towards restructuring public buses network to match the demand for the service with the number of buses deployed on domestic routes within Dubai Emirate, increase the number of operating buses during peak hours, and reduce their numbers during off-peak time” commented Al Dosari.
He added: “We have also encouraged our employees to come up with creative initiatives to minimize expenditure and maximize revenues through adding these topics to the agenda of the regular meetings of the Leadership Team of the Agency, offering financial & material incentives to reward innovative concepts that address expenditure cut at the Agency level, raise the awareness of the importance of controlling the operational budgets and taking efficient & effective remedial actions.
The Agency also seeks to adopt the least expensive options for implementing the approved plans & programs while maintaining the quality of services rendered, increasing revenues through stepping the operational efficiency and sourcing new investment opportunities. In this regard contracts worth more than 30 million dirham had been signed during the first quarter of 2010, and the organizational chart of the Agency had been revised to keep pace with the commercialization trend, exploit the investment opportunities capable of boosting revenues, developing an effective mechanism for measuring operational costs in accordance with a monthly assessed system, and optimizing the utilization of human resources at the Agency”.
“Rationalizing expenditure and maximizing revenues is not only confined to making financial savings through cutting operational & maintenance expenses and enhancing revenues from investment projects, but also goes beyond to developing long-term plans & programs that seek to achieve financial excellence, comply with the directives & financial policies of the Dubai Government, and enhance the effectiveness as well as efficiency of budget preparation & disbursement processes.
In this context we have revised up to 6 operational & financial policies endorsed by RTA Board of Directors; which in turn leads to the optimal usage and safeguard of public funds. The Agency is also compliant with the implementation of the financial & economic legislations that seek to control expenditure & resources, and comply with the rules related to the management of public funds” said the CEO of RTA Public Transport Agency in a final statement.
It is note-worthy that Public Transport Agency has won the Best Agency Award at the RTA level in cutting expenditure and raising revenues in 2009.
