Official vehicles gone missing even before their handing over to dept

SKARDU: Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) General Administration Department (GAD) started search for missing vehicles, which have reportedly gone missing even before their handing over to the departments.

Following raising the issue of the missing vehicles, GB chief secretary ordered to print official logo on all government vehicles.

The chief secretary issued written orders to all departments to display the GB government logo prominently on the bonnet and to clearly mark as ‘purchased with public funds’. The chief secretary further wrote in his letter that the objective of this initiative is to prevent use of government vehicles by unauthorised people and the members of the officials’ families.

Answering a question regarding missing vehicles, chief secretary told The News that he had no information in this regard at this moment but he would check it from all the departments in the morning.

Opposition leader Gilgit Baltistan Kazim Maysam had raised this issue on the floor of the provincial assembly.

While talking to The News, Kazim Maysam said that report of missing official vehicles is authentic. A team should be constituted to check purchase invoices from various motor companies and this way it is easy to retrieve these missing vehicles.

A government officer told The News that purchase of new vehicles started after 2009 with the arrival of political government which released funds to buy vehicles in large numbers. Some vehicles have not even been registered in the name of departments rather have been taken out of list after their purchase from the motor companies. The only solution is to conduct physical audit from vendors not from government departments. He said that monetisation of official vehicles as per entitlement will save Rs1.5 billion of GB which are incurred every year on account of petroleum products, maintenance and overhauling.