Controversial stock of petrol:

Committee recommends financial loss recovery from supplier

The committee which probed the recent import of a controversial stock of 20,000 metric tons of 92 octane petrol by Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) has recommended the recovery of the relevant financial loss incurred by the CPC from the supplier company and for the payment of damages to the affected customers.

The committee headed by its chairman, Power and Energy Ministry Secretary M.M. Ferdinando which submitted its report to Petroleum Industries Minister Susil Premajayantha yesterday morning, has further recommended that if there is any unrecovered loss, steps should be taken to recover it from officials responsible for the deal, in addition to other steps taken against them.

The committee in its report observed that essential points in the government approved procurement process have not been observed in buying this controversial petrol stock by joining it with 15,000 mt of diesel.

The committee further observed that three tenders opened for the purchase of petrol awarding to decisions of the weekly stock review committee from May 25, 2011 to May 31, 2011 had been rejected. Due to the rejection of these three tenders, stock position had declined to a dangerous level by June 01, 2011 creating a background for a petrol shortage by June 17, 2011 driving towards a quick procurement process by June 17, 2011.

The controversial 20,000 metric tons of petrol had been purchased outside accepted standard and exceeding the maximum permitted oxygenate percentage and 513 metric tons of it had been directly released to the market on June 17, 2011 causing damage to vehicles of customers.