Despite its small size, Sri Lanka has a staggering eight million vehicles on its roads. This means that almost one in three persons has access to a vehicle of some kind. It is also equally well-known that Sri Lanka has a bloated public service, with nearly 1.5 million employees.
It was revealed in Parliament recently that public institutions in Sri Lanka operate nearly 70,000 vehicles, including 4,400 that are either rented or leased. The annual rental expenses for the latter category exceeds Rs.2.5 billion, a truly astonishing sum for a country mired in an economic crisis.
Of course, this does not count in the operational expenses – fuel, servicing, insurance, revenue licences, repairs, spare parts and tyres, which also run into millions of rupees per year. Moreover, despite the import ban on private passenger vehicles, a few hundred vehicles were imported in the post-Covid era for the use of various Government agencies.
An audit needs to be conducted to ascertain whether the Government needs such a big fleet of vehicles in the first place. The “official car” is a perk taken for granted by Sri Lankan Public Servants as they go up the ladder, but such a facility is not provided in most other countries, developed or developing. Instead, top officials and sometimes even Ministers, are compelled to take public transport.
Here the trend is for Ministers and politicians to seek Range Rovers and Land Cruiser V8’s, which are of course imported duty free at the expense of the public, mostly the expatriates working in the Middle East. Some of these luxury vehicles easily cost over US$ 100,000 (Rs.30 million) even before adding any options.
Now there is again a clamour from politicians for another round of duty free car permits before the present Parliament is dissolved. This call must be resisted at all costs. If at all the Government must provide vehicles for MPs and Ministers, they can be given double cabs and entry-level electric cars. If they really want a luxury car or SUV to serve their constituents, they should fork out the money themselves and show how they got that money as well.
We have also seen many top Government officials going back and forth in high-end vehicles such as Prados and Monteros. These are mostly registered under a relative’s name and then rented to the institution itself, which is another form of corruption. Worse, a casual observer going near any top school in Colombo at closing time, will notice hundreds of Government vehicles in the parking lots, with the drivers waiting to pick up the children of officials. This amounts to a gross misuse of official vehicles.
There have also been many instances of Government vehicles “disappearing” from the assigned offices, with absolutely no trace of their present whereabouts. The CID should undertake a proper investigation into this phenomenon. Also, a close look at a parking lot of any Government institution will reveal relatively new vehicles rusting away. Most of these cars need only a simple repair – some just need a new set of tyres – to get back into running condition.
The Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) set an example in this regard recently, having repaired around 400 buses and putting them back into service. Once repaired, if the Government institution in question does not want the vehicles, they can be auctioned or sold by tender.
Indeed, any excess vehicles in Government offices should be sold through a transparent procedure. Some Government offices and agencies also use vehicles that are 20-25 years old and well past their prime. Maintaining these rickety contraptions costs more money and it is actually more cost effective to sell them or even scrap them and use the proceeds to purchase new vehicles, if needed.
Indeed, when the time comes to replace the vehicles in the Government fleet over the next few years, priority should be given to Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) instead of Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles. BEVs will become cheaper and more efficient over the next few years. These have lower running and servicing costs and charging can be done via solar power instead of relying on thermal power, which negates the whole point of having an electric car. Commercial electric vehicles will take a few more years to gain traction, but electric trucks for city work (with a range of around 300 km per full charge) are already available.
The gradual electrification of the Government fleet will also tally with the stated goal of halting the registration of all ICE vehicles in Sri Lanka by 2035. The Government should also carefully evaluate the pros and cons of outright purchases vs renting/hiring of vehicles, because purchases could often be cheaper in the long run.
It is also high time that our politicians and Security Forces officials got rid of the “squad” mentality, whereby five or six vehicles travel in convoy apparently for the security of the VIP passenger. This is a complete waste of fuel and manpower that we can ill-afford whilst recovering from an economic crisis. With the exception of the President, the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader, all others should be able to use just one vehicle, as there are no internal or external threats in peacetime.
In fact, as stated above, officials and politicians in most other countries use public transport. In Sri Lanka too, developing the public transport system by incorporating features such as the Light Rail Transit (LRT) will hopefully persuade public servants to forego the official car and lead to a reduction in the Government vehicle fleet.
