Bad financial management by Government was responsible for cuts in the Island’s ferry service, Opposition leader Kim Swan said last night.Mr Swan called the reductions, which affects each of the Island’s four ferry routes, “socially insensitive”.Accusing Government of “shooting from the hip”, he said: “The reason for the cut in ferry services is directly connected to the financial indiscipline and poor financial management by the Progressive Labour Party Government over an extended period of time.”He also said the Budget figures quoted by Government in this week’s announcement of the summer ferry schedule had been made to sound harsher than they should have.Mr Swan said: “We were told this week that the ferry service’s budget has been reduced by 24 percent. But they got that figures by comparing the estimated budget for this year against the estimate for last year. The estimate for last year was $9.9 million. When you compare that with the estimate for this year of $7.58 million, you get 24 percent. But what they actually spent last year on the ferries was $8.99 million. That’s a much less significant difference.”The United Bermuda Party leader also questioned the justification of fuel expenses for the cutbacks.Earlier this week, Acting Transport Minister Michael Weeks said that “the majority of the changes to our schedule reflect our effort to reduce fuel consumption”.Mr Swan hit back: “We can’t accept government’s excuse that fuel cost is the prime reason for the limiting service and point out that government surcharges and taxes are the main reason fuel cost is exorbitant in the first instance.”Calling ferries “a staple social item in this country”, he said: “Government Ferries were never operated to function with a mandate to be profitable. The logic to drastically cut services runs contrary to the thinking of socially progressive people towards public transportation and its social objective.”More people should be encouraged to use public transportation, he said.He called the axing of the morning commuter service from St George’s “a nonsense”, saying fuel could have been saved by using an overnight berth for the ferry at the East End “thus negating the need of two empty trips between Hamilton and St George’s.”The cut in late night service between Dockyard and Hamilton on the Blue Route, he said, is “a critical blow for Hamilton merchants”.And he questioned the cut in the Green Route ferry to Rockaway, saying Government had invested millions to get the service running and it neglected Southampton’s Port Royal Golf Course.With the Pink route also scaled back, Mr Swan said: “At least schedule one ferry service around 9pm which would do the entire loop and accommodate Hinson Island residents and Salt Kettle, Blu [Restaurant], Belmont visitors and patrons.”He said: “Government with the stroke of a pen have negated years of investment in ferries and their own work to lure people to use ferries as an alternative to our congested and dangerous roads.“The aim should be to provide proper transportation management which focuses on the best distribution of our working population, student population and also our tourists, to the main economic hubs of Dockyard, Hamilton and St. George’s and ancillary docks.”Useful web link: www.marops.bm.