A TOTAL of 102 vehicles used during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in 2018 still remain missing and are yet to been returned, says Finance Secretary, Dr. Ken Ngangan.
Dr Ngangan in a full page public notice advert in the two dailies today called on all persons in temporary possession of APEC vehicles to immediately return them to the Department of Finance within seven days of the notice.
He warned that failure to comply with the instruction will see the Department of Finance applying the full force of the Law to recoup them and those individual and parties identified will be severely dealt with by the law.
“APEC has ended in 2018 and there is no reason for any person to continue to be in possession of the APEC vehicles,” Dr Ngangan said.
He said the notice applies without exception to all persons, including Public and Statutory Bodies, the general public, former or current short-term employees, contractors, service providers, individual and Joint Security Task Force.
Secretary Ngangan further clarified that the notice also include vehicles that were allocated to Government Departments and Agencies by Department of Finance for the purpose of temporarily official use except; for those institutions and Government agencies that have been allocated a vehicle by Department of Finance in accordance with NEC decision No. NG03/2019 and; those that have been notified through formal letters as per NEC decision No. 51/2021.
“All APEC assets are the legitimate property of the State and are under the management of the Department of Finance.
“The National Executive Council has directed the ultimate disposal or allocation of these vehicles and the Department of Finance is implementing that direction,” Dr Ngangan said.