An emergency shipment of petrol which was proven to bebelow the required standards has caused great financial damage to the publicand the government, the Secretary of the Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya stated.
Following several complaints of malfunctioning vehicles inthe country, Ananda Palitha of the Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya told Ada Derana thata shipment carrying petrol below the necessary standards for use had come tothe Colombo Harbour between June 18 and 20 and had subsequently beendistributed for consumption.
He stated that the shipment was brought to Sri Lanka withthe approval of the Petroleum Ministry Secretary�s approval following fears ofa potential fuel shortage. The decision was also taken while Ceylon PetroleumCorporation (CPC) Chairman Harry Jayawardena was out of the country.
Palitha explained that the depleting stock had prompted thecalling of tenders for shipments of fuel in order to maintain stocks for thenext three months. However, Ministry Secretary Titus Jayawardena had cancelledtwo of the tenders which had in turn threatened to create a shortage, he said.
The Secretary had then received cabinet approval for anemergency shipment of oil which had allegedly been the cause of themalfunctioning vehicles.
He further stated that apart from the extra cost to thegovernment in terms of shipping charges and harbour fees, leaks in theSapugaskanda pipelines through which this oil was pumped had caused muchwastage due to several leaks. He alleged that it had not been pumped throughMuturajawela to avoid detection of its poor quality which was known to theauthorities.
He added that the oil had been distributed around theisland to CPC and other fuel stations while another 1500 metric tons are stillbeing pumped from the ship.
Furthermore, over 125 pumps in over 50 sheds around the islandhave been disabled due to the nature of the oil while the anti-rust paint coatingin the oil bowsers had heated up while transporting the oil. Upon lab testingthe oil was found to be of very low quality which experts tried to remedy byadding certain chemicals into it. However, the 90 octane petrol that has beenpumped into vehicles around the island has caused malfunctions within one totwo weeks.
The Petroleum Ministry stated that the fuel had been boughtfrom a leading state owned company in the Middle-East of which the quality of fuelhad not been a problem.
Petroleum Ministry Secretary Titus Jayawardena stated thatupon tests conducted on petrol samples collected from 15 sheds it was shownthat only two of the samples had shown signs of low quality.
He said that poor standards of practice at the fillingstations could also have been the reason for these vehicular malfunctions whileadding that if it had been a problem with the fuel, many more complaints shouldhave been made.
Many vehicle manufacturers have also complained that brandnew vehicles which had been purchased were returned to the company uponmalfunction.
Mr. Jayawardena stated that complaints had only been madeby owners of trishaws and motorcycles while it was yet to be proven that thepetrol was harmful to other vehicles.
No comments:
Post a Comment