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Import of electric vehicles: Audit Office says two companies dominate; basic rules flouted
View(s):The National Audit Office has found that 64 percent of permits issued under the last administration’s controversial electric vehicle (EV) import scheme were granted to just two out of 31 institutions that had registered to provide the facility for migrant workers.
The NAO has now released to the public its special audit on the Foreign Employment Ministry’s initiative to issue EV permits for Sri Lankans employed abroad based on their foreign remittances. It states that Auto Capital Investment (Pvt) Ltd had provided facilities for 335 permits and Overland Auto Mobile for 305 licensees, totalling 640 licensees. Accordingly, both companies provided 64 percent of the total number of permits.
Only 375 electric vehicles imported under the scheme had been registered with the DMT as of July 9.
The report reveals a vast array of questionable practices, some of which have already been publicised, including through Parliament. It states that 510 licensees had imported electric vehicles using the permits issued by the Foreign Employment Ministry as of June 30 this year. But only 375 of them were registered with the Department of Motor Traffic as of July 9. Even out of these, 84 vehicles had been given to third parties by the licensees.
In terms of the categories of migrant workers that used the facility, according to information in Foreign Employment Ministry files, a large number (164 people) were seamen followed by “managers” (150) and “directors” (96). Additionally, there are 78 engineers, 61 “officers” and 24 “consultants”. There are also one international cricket umpire and three doctors.
Even basic rules had been flouted. For instance, while it was decreed that every Sri Lankan migrant who wanted to avail themselves of the scheme must have registered with the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment, just 286 out of 1,000 permit holders—a meagre 28.6 percent—had done so.
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