No Finance Ministry records on official vehicles used by MPs : COPF Chairman

The Finance Ministry's failure to maintain records concerning the official vehicles used by parliamentarians has created suspicion on the involvement of corruption, Committee on Public Finance (COPF) Chairman M.A. Sumandiran said.

He made these remarks during a discussion while pointing out that officials of the Finance Ministry, had failed to submit documents regarding the usage of vehicles by lawmakers.

Accordingly, the COPF has instructed the relevant officials to prepare a document with immediate effect and submit it in due course.

Mr. Sumandiran also claimed that a succeeding minister in Sri Lanka is generally not willing to use the predecessor's vehicle.

"There is no neeed to purchase new vehicles since the old ones are still in a usable condition" he added on the same note.

Further, the COPF Chairman said that prceeding ministers on most occasions do not handover their vehicles to the Finance Ministry after their tenure comes to an end.

Accordingly, he said that the COPF is conducting investigations to determine whether there is corruption involved in this regard.