• NAO probe to cover public sector vehicle fleet

The Police stated that once specific information about the incidents of disappearance of State-owned vehicles is revealed, the relevant agencies will complain about it to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), and investigations will be conducted accordingly.

It was recently reported that a large number of State-owned vehicles have gone missing, and that the Presidential Secretariat has directed the CID to investigate it. However, the Police stated last week that the CID was yet to commence an investigation into the matter as they still have not received any complaint with regard to the same.

When asked by The Daily Morning yesterday (29) as to whether the CID had commenced any related investigation as of yesterday, the Police Media Spokesperson and Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Nihal Thalduwa said that they would do so when a formal complaint is received. "When a complaint is received properly, they will initiate an investigation. It's like this, the relevant institutions will first carry out an internal investigation and find out how many and what types of vehicles have gone missing. Then they will lodge a complaint with the CID."

The National Audit Office (NAO) is also conducting a survey on public sector vehicles, independently initiated without external requests. Auditor General W.P.C. Wickramaratne told The Daily Morning that the survey is still ongoing, so findings couldn't be disclosed, and no outcome predictions could be made yet. He emphasised that the audit covers all public sector vehicles, not just those of the Presidential Secretariat.