500 motor vehicle files ‘gone with the wind’
View(s):A government probe into a massive vehicle registration fraud running into billions of rupees at the Motor Traffic Department (MTD) has come to a standstill as some 500 files with motor registrations have gone missing. The case of missing 500 files at the MTD came to light following a recent directive issued by the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to submit those files to the Auditor General immediately for an audit query, PAC minutes revealed. This directive was issued to the MTD Commissioner by the PAC in response to submissions made by the Auditor General who said the request made to the MTD was unheeded.
These files were relating to the registration of Prado cars and Jeeps under the tractor category allegedly falsifying Customs records depriving of tax revenue amounting to billions of rupees for state coffers. MTD officials have informed the PAC that these files were kept inside a container at its Werahera branch office and that the files had been destroyed with water seeping into the container. Audit queries conducted at the MTD revealed a massive vehicle registration fraud during the previous regime relating to the importation of 5,494 vehicles by falsifying Customs records and under valuation.
It has also unearthed a mega scam at the MTD to the tune of Rs. 6.4 billion involving fraudulent registrations and under-invoicing new vehicles as used vehicles. The racket had been carried out for years, where newly imported vehicles were cleared from the Colombo Port and registered under old numbers, informed sources said. Even old motor cycle numbers had been removed from the records of the DMT as there was no electronic data available and they were being fraudulently issued to SUVs and other luxury vehicles. In some instances, Sri Lanka Transport Board bus numbers were given to SUVs. The loss incurred to the Treasury from those malpractices is yet to be ascertained, the sources revealed.