The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake - Minister of Transport, Highways, Ports and Civil Aviation

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, issuing route permits has been considered a corrupt practice, a mafia, in this country for over 25 years. It is clear that many Provincial Road Passenger Transport Authorities have, for a long time, issued route permits without any basis to their friends, henchmen and political supporters. When their party comes to power, they use those permits to provide buses for their gatherings. It has been an extremely corrupt system. Therefore, after we took over the Ministry, we decided to conduct a full audit regarding the issuance of route permits. That audit has now commenced. Thousands will have to be audited. It is not yet concluded. We expect to identify and rectify the problematic situations and disclose them.

¶ 02 Next, since the National People’s Power assumed administration, we will not issue any permit without a tender process. Some Members—especially those not in the Government—have written to us. We informed them that we will not follow the old method.

¶ 03 Further, I wish to inform all Hon. Members: we need new routes. Therefore, through the Coordinating Committee, please propose routes that require new route permits. Buses do not always have to run in the same way every day; inter-urban services can be organized differently. With the Hon. President, as Minister of Finance, having permitted bus imports, new permits can be obtained. Accordingly, we request that tenders be called. We ask Members to identify 60–65 sustainable business routes and submit them for permits.