LAHORE, April 25: The Punjab government plans to auction a number of vehicles in next two weeks that were under the use of previous provincial cabinet, Chief Minister's Secretariat, and the government machinery, sources reveal to Dawn.

The government is going to sell all surplus vehicles through public auction in the next fortnight, according to a senior official, who does not want to be quoted, because he is not allowed to speak to the media. He said every public functionary would use vehicles in accordance with the entitlement.

According to him, vehicles belonging to the Chief Minister's Secretariat have been separated for auction. The vehicles retrieved from the previous cabinet will be identified for sale after accommodating the present cabinet.

All departments have been given a policy on the usage of vehicles. The government asked secretaries to submit a list of the surplus vehicles in accordance with the new policy by Friday (April 25) but they have reportedly sought four more days to complete the task.

Officials say the departments are going to make two lists of their vehicles; one, indicating those they intend to retain, and another showing the surplus ones they are going to surrender.

The S&GAD will receive surplus vehicles from all departments in phases. The process is likely to be completed in 10 days.

During this time, teams from the secretariat will visit each department to verify whether the number and types of retained vehicles match the government policy, and the list provided by them, or not.

Any wrong information or possession of vehicles against the policy will lead to strict action. But the departments have been allowed to retain the vehicles of their choice.

Before going for the grand sale, the provincial government has also banned the buying of new vehicles by all administrative departments, rejecting all related requests sent to the Finance Department.

The departments having genuine reasons for new transport would instead be given vehicles from the surplus pool.

The caretaker government retrieved nearly 175 vehicles from the previous PML-Q cabinet. Some of them have been given to the new cabinet ministers.

Officials say only 20 vehicles will be reserved for the protocol duty of the provincial government, and some more for the more cabinet members likely to be inducted in near future. The rest will be auctioned.