Substandard bowsers bought in 2018, received without checks

The five oil bowsers that were procured in 2018 were found to have defects and Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals Ltd (CPSTL) had received them without carrying out the proper inspection on the vehicles and realising the consequences it would cause in the future.

This information was revealed during today's deliberations of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) to investigate corruption of the current administration. A senior automobile technician attached to Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) Preadeniya, Dilip Stephen informed the Commission that they used to operate bowsers manufactured by Isuzu, ATA motors and UD Trucks.

“But in 2018, the officials attached to CPSTL procured these five bowsers from ‘Scania’ automobiles. Those trucks have several major failures, such as exhaust system and oil leakage issues and thereby cannot cover long distances as a result,” he said.

Counsel attached to the Attorney General’s (AG) Department then questioned whether these trucks have a risk of catching fire and the witness replied there could be the probability for such situation since the trucks have oil leakage failures.

Earlier it was revealed to the Commission that the government has incurred a loss of Rs.11.3 million when purchasing these five trucks and also the exhaust system in this vehicle was mounted in a different area from what was mentioned in the criteria. Four out of the five trucks are being operated in Kandy and the drivers of these trucks complained about various issues such as the performance and facilities, it was reported to the Commission. (Yoshitha Perera)