Rs 42.8bn Double-Cab Tender Was Scrapped for Favouritism — Is the New One Any Cleaner?

The government scrapped its 2025 plan to buy 1,775 double-cab pickups (reportedly around Rs 42.8 billion) after opposition MPs said the tender specs — 2,500cc engine minimum, island-wide service centres, Rs 10 billion turnover — fit only one supplier, with just 12 days to bid. A fresh tender for 1,000 double cabs went out in late September 2026 with those specs loosened (smaller engine, lower ground clearance, fewer owned service centres, lower turnover bar) but the bid security jumped five-fold to Rs 250 million. One camp says that's the fix: looser technical specs let more brands compete, and a bigger bond just weeds out bidders who can't actually deliver 1,000 vehicles on time. The other camp says raising the money bar just swaps one gatekeeper for another — smaller importers who could meet the relaxed specs still can't front Rs 250 million, so the same few big names end up bidding anyway. Does a tender like this ever end up genuinely open, or does government vehicle procurement always land with whoever has the deepest pockets? And should 1,000 brand-new diesel double cabs be the priority at all, while ordinary buyers are still paying a 50% import surcharge on everything else? මේවා කලින්ම තීරණය කරපු සැපයුම්කරුවෙක් වෙනුවෙන් හදන conditions කියලා හිතෙනවද?