State Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts (COPA Committee) said that the Auditor General’s report shows that 1794 vehicles of the Ministry of Health are missing. Sri Lanka Latest News
The COPA committee chairman said that the report also states that the ministry’s 259 vehicles have been handed over to external parties and stated that the auditor general has presented facts in his report about the deficiencies in the data system related to vehicle administration.
An official of the Ministry of Health said that there are 679 cars and 1115 motorcycles among these vehicles and after learning that most of those cars are not in the possession of the Ministry, a request has already been made to the Motor Transport Department to stop issuing revenue licenses to them.
Accordingly, she added that the issuance of revenue licenses related to these vehicles has been stopped.
The officials of the Ministry of Health said that although it was possible to uncover information regarding 425 vehicles through this program, it is difficult to find out whether they were auctioned and misused.
Those officials who said that information has been revealed only about eleven of the 1115 motorcycles, said that most of these motorcycles were issued to the field officers.
They pointed out that these motorcycles are given to the field officers under contract and they are allowed to take them personally after retirement.
It was mentioned there that further work is going on with regard to those motorcycles.
Most of these vehicles were registered from 1950 to 1996, says the COPA committee.
Regarding the vehicle administration system, during an inquiry made by the COPA committee chairman, the heads of the Ministry of Health stated that the system is being implemented.
The Copa Committee Chairman instructed the officials to take immediate steps to prevent the misplacement of vehicles.
The heads of the Ministry of Health were recently summoned before the Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts to inquire about its performance. This information was revealed in that meeting.
A group of officials including Janaka Sri Chandragupta, Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Director General of Health Services Dr. Asela Gunawardena participated in this committee meeting.
