Upon inquiring from the Presidential Secretariat on this matter, 'Sri Lanka Mirror' was told that these vehicles were imported from the German company by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa in September 2014.

The shipment of vehicles had arrived at the Colombo Port only on January 2015 the Presidential Secretariat was notified several times to clear the shipment, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that President Maithripala Sirisena was informed of the matter. As the taxpayer money was spent on the shipment, the vehicles were released from the Customs accordingly after paying the Customs charges. The vehicles were then handed over to the PSD, he added.

However, the funds for this purpose were obtained after submitting a supplementary estimate, in addition to the last year's budget allocation for the President.

It is said that the former President Rajapaksa had spent over Rs. 3.87 billion from the last year's budget allocation, on vehicles, by the time he was defeated in January 2015.

When Mr. Rajapaksa's predecessor - Mrs. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga retired in 2005, the total value of the vehicles fleet allotted to the President stood at Rs. 81 million.

In the last nine years, the amount was increased by 48 fold, upto Rs. 3.87 billion, reports add.