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Govt. calls for bids for sale of 21 presidential office vehicles
View(s):By Niranjala Ariyawansha
The government has announced that it is in the final stages of auctioning of all luxury and high-engine capacity vehicles on the open market, which have become a substantial non-financial burden on state institutions, as reported to the Sunday Times.
In the first stage, the Presidential Secretariat has called for bids for the sale of 21 vehicles belonging to it.
Additional Secretary to the President (Transport), Mahesh Hewavitharana said that a Valuation Board for Disposal consisting of several officials representing quite a few government institutions, including himself, decided which vehicles under the President’s Office should be sold.
The Cabinet had decided on December 12 last year, that luxury vehicles, which have become a financial burden on ministries, provincial councils, state corporations, state enterprises, universities, banks, should be disposed of as soon as possible according to the government procurement procedure.
Accordingly, the Comptroller General’s Office under the Ministry of Finance issued a circular to all heads of state institutions on December 18 — Assets Management Circular No. 5/2024, stating that they should dispose of the luxury vehicles in their institutions by following the government’s procurement procedure and report all information to the Comptroller General Department by March 1.
Also, each government institution must report the income from sales.
A senior official from the Comptroller General’s Office said that all government institutions will comply, while sounding confident that the media will be able to report about its success after March 1.
Unusable vehicles are to be sold as scrap and for spare parts.
The mechanical condition and economic value will be estimated. Many government agencies have appointed an officer from the government’s Valuation Department and an officer from the Department of Motor Traffic to the Valuation Board for Disposal. However, officials from a number of government agencies said that the disposal will be carried out after a collective decision by the board.
Government Chief Valuer A.S.W.K. Nanayakkara said that three officers from the Valuation Department were appointed to the valuation board at the request of the Presidential Secretariat.
“A number of state institutions, including the Presidential Secretariat, requested one of our officers to the valuation board appointed by their institutions, and accordingly, our officers were appointed to those institutions. The only job of our officers is to provide our expertise to assess the value of the vehicles identified for disposal.’’
Many state institutions have taken steps to appoint an RMV officer with professional expertise of vehicle standardisation, technical condition and economic value to their institution’s valuation board.
RMV Assistant Commissioner (Technical) Sujeewa Tennakoon told the Sunday Times that officers are appointed to the valuation board of state institutions on request.
“First, all government agencies can conduct an inspection of the government vehicles in their institutions and decide whether to keep these vehicles, or to set these vehicles from use and auction them off. If necessary, they can request an inspector from the Department of Motor Vehicles. Otherwise, they can do it without that. It is important to consider the economic efficiency of certain vehicles when keeping them for use by the organisation,” he said.
He noted that the expertise of the Motor Transport Department officials is extremely important. RMV officials will investigate the mechanical condition, repair history and maintenance of the vehicles.
The board will examine whether it is economically viable to sell a vehicle, sell it for scrap, or for spare parts. Here, the government valuation department officer submits estimates after which the vehicles will be disposed of.
According to the circular of the Comptroller General’s Office, the head of the institution is obliged to cancel the original registration of a vehicle before selling it for scrap. The head of the institution is also responsible for transferring the registration rights of the vehicle within six months of selling a vehicle.
The circular also emphasises that no government institution should purchase any vehicle that is disposed of in this way.
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