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No official vehicles for ruling party MPs
The Government has reversed an earlier decision to provide ruling party Members of Parliament with official vehicles, a senior official said yesterday.
Instead of providing them with official vehicles, they would be provided with a fuel quota, he added.
The change of decision comes after considering the issue of vehicles that would be in conflict with the policies of the National People’s Power (NPP).
Moves to issue vehicles to all government MPs also drew criticism from opposition parliamentarians, with some of them claiming that they would also be demanding similar vehicles if the ruling party MPs were to be issued official vehicles.
A cross section of ruling party members had already declared that they would be accepting vehicles provided by the Government, pointing out that vehicles were required for their travel, particularly from their electorates in the provinces.
However, Cabinet ministers and deputy ministers will be entitled to official vehicles.
Meanwhile, Public Security and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananda Wijepala told the Sunday Times the government would not continue with the practice of issuing duty-free vehicle permits for MPs.
He said every five years a cabinet paper was submitted to obtain the facility, but his ministry would not be submitting this cabinet paper.
He also said they would also not be importing new vehicles for the use of ministers.
Minister Wijepala said they would take steps to auction 228 V8 vehicles used by ministers and various ministries while there would be no more import of V8 vehicles for the Government.
“Instead we would be importing vehicles that are low cost, high fuel efficiency, and less maintenance cost,” he said.
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