Around 17 vehicles worth millions are dumped at the Secretariat and due to lack of use, many of them are out of order.
Joint secretary of the transport department Md Shahjahan Ali said: “We only get cars when they are sent by a department. When the cars rot away, we feel pain but can’t do anything about it.”
A few officials said: “Once the project ends, the cars are left in neglect and over time, they are not fixed and eventually become inoperable.”
A health ministry official says: “If a car is fixed then there won’t be any rationale for buying new ones and so, once the cars become unusable they are sold at auction.”
Most of the 17 cars left without care at the secretariat belong to the health ministry.
When contacted, additional secretary of the health ministry, Md Saidur Rahman, said: “The issue is unexpected, government money is being wasted and we will soon inform the matter to the relevant authorities.”
An auction notice has recently been given to sell government cars which have been lying in neglect for some time and these will be disposed between January and March.
The ministry of public administration has issued a notice in this regard on 30 December. The notice said that cars which have been declared inoperative are being sold in auction and some expired cars are being handed free of cost for training purposes at BRTC, BMET and other technical institutes.