Expressway Transport Firm Faces Collapse after Years of Mismanagement

The Expressway Transport Company (Pvt) Ltd, set up a decade ago to operate luxury bus services along Sri Lanka’s expressways, is now facing collapse following years of financial neglect, poor governance, and administrative confusion.

Soon after its creation, the Minister of Finance and Planning observed that the RDA had no legal authority to establish a company under its name. 

The Cabinet of Ministers, at its meeting on 8 May 2014, therefore decided that the company should function under the Ministry of Highways, Ports and Shipping, as an entity fully owned and supervised by the Government Treasury. 

The Cabinet also required Treasury approval for the company’s Memorandum of Association and the appointment of its Board of Directors. However, these directives were never implemented, and the company continued to operate without proper oversight.

Adding to the governance failures, the company has not submitted financial statements or annual reports for eight consecutive years (2016–2023). This violates Section 6.6 of Public Enterprises Circular No. 01/2021, which mandates submission of such reports to the Auditor General within 60 days of the financial year’s end.

Persistent non-compliance and operational losses eventually led the Cabinet on 26 June 2023 to order the liquidation of the company through a court-appointed liquidator and the dissolution of its Board of Directors. As part of the winding-up process, 20 luxury buses valued at Rs. 216 million and 15% of expressway transport operations were handed over to the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB).

Despite these directives, by 31 December 2023, the liquidation process remained incomplete, underscoring chronic delays and weak institutional accountability.

What was once intended to be a modern, self-sustaining expressway transport service has instead become an example of bureaucratic inefficiency, poor policy execution, and failure to protect public assets. The episode raises serious questions about how state-run enterprises are governed and whether the Treasury and responsible ministries can enforce compliance in future ventures.