Govt. institutions barred from purchasing luxury vehicles disposed by the state

Under the government's initiative of disposing of high end- luxury vehicles that impose a heavy burden of public funds, other state institutions are barred from purchasing them through state procurement procedure, according to a Treasury circular.

In keeping up with the Cabinet decision taken on December 2 to reduce the state expenditure, all government owned vehicles that require high maintenance and/or are fuel costly are to be disposed of through procurement after evaluation process by respective Chief Accounting Officers (CAO) of the state entities.

"The respective officers should take action to dispose of the vehicles after assessing the vehicle requirement of the institution, which are not economical to use, not required for the use of the institution," the circular issued by the Secretary to the Treasury K.M. Mahinda Siriwardana said.

If those vehicles are required for use of those institutions, the respective CAOs  should send a request justifying the requirement with the details of such vehicles before December 31 to the Comptroller General's Office to obtain approval from the Treasury Secretary.

Accordingly, all the petrol vehicles exceeding engine capacity 1800 CC and diesel vehicles exceeding engine capacity 2300 CC are to be disposed of under the directive based on the Cabinet paper submitted by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to streamline state vehicle fleets. 

Double cabs, single cabs, Vans, Buses, Lorries and trucks are not included in the vehicle categories that will be considered for the disposal.

Vehicles which are not in running condition are also to be disposed of as scrap materials following proper evaluation process by respective CFA officials. "..it is a obligatory function of all CFOs to prevent the ruination of these public properties and loss of revenue to the government,"

Once a vehicle is disposed of, not as scrap materials, the CFOs are tasked to transfer the registered ownership of the vehicles within six months from the date of disposal.