• No. of Prez Secretariat vehicles ‘missing’ 

The Department of Motor Traffic (DMT) has launched an investigation into the missing State-owned vehicles in order to identify the total number of vehicles and the public institutions to which those vehicles were given, said Commissioner General of Motor Traffic Nishantha Weerasinghe. 

Recently, the National Audit Office has emphasised the necessity of locating more than 5,000 State-owned vehicles that have allegedly gone missing from certain public institutions over the past few years and which are valued at millions of rupees. The Audit Office has reportedly advised that the relevant authorities and departments conduct a thorough inquiry into the locations of the lost cars and any potential irregularities related to their misplacement.

In this context, when contacted by The Daily Morning yesterday (4), Weerasinghe said that the Department has already commenced a comprehensive investigation to identify the missing vehicles. He also said that the issue was brought into consideration following a recent audit conducted into the Health Ministry, where a significant number of vehicles are missing. He noted that while the investigation was primarily focused on the issue in the said Ministry, a comprehensive investigation has been launched to cover almost all the institutions. Speaking further, Weerasinghe stated that a number of vehicles owned by the Presidential Secretariat have also been identified as missing vehicles and that this information will be reported to the relevant authorities as soon as possible. 

A recently issued audit inspection report said that the handover notes and recorded documents for the Government vehicle stock were sufficient to identify the final custodians of the missing vehicles. The Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts recently observed that 1,794 vehicles, including 679 cars and 1,115 motorcycles owned by the Health Ministry, were not in their possession.

Finance State Ministers Ranjith Siyambalapitiya and Shehan Semasinghe were unavailable for comment.