Aug 17, Colombo: Sri Lanka's parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) has instructed the Auditor General to conduct an extensive investigation into the controversial deal of substandard diesel.

The Chairman of COPE Senior Minister D.E.W. Gunasekera has informed the Auditor General to conduct the investigation in to the deal and submit a report.

Upon the receipt of the report, all parties responsible for the substandard diesel fiasco would be called before the COPE Committee to decide further actions, the Minister has said.

Minister Gunasekera has told the state-run radio SLBC the decision for a COPE investigation was taken at the request of the Minister of Petroleum industries Susil Premajayantha.

Minister Premajayantha also has appointed a three-member committee to look into the complaints of several vehicles developing mechanical failures after using the substandard diesel stock.

Use of a low quality diesel stock distributed by the state-run petroleum distributor, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) has damaged a large number of state vehicles.

Technical failures had been reported from the vehicles belonging to the Ports Authority, trains, buses postal trucks, ambulances, and several other government and private vehicles.

The petroleum authority last year paid compensation to over 3,000 vehicle owners whose vehicles were damaged by pumping low quality petrol.