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Expensive celebrations
Ministries and ministers seem to be quite liberal when it comes to squandering public finances. Here are two such instances which have been reported by the Auditor General in his latest report to Parliament for the year 2004.

Celebrating Independence Day is rather an expensive matter as certain audit inquiries have revealed. In 2004, the Provincial Councils and Local Government Ministry and the Education Ministry had spent as preliminary expenses on Independence Day celebrations held in Colombo a tidy sum of over Rs 9.1 million.

This amount included Rs. 648,000 on 54,000 bottles of water, Rs 94,500 on 58,500 packets of milk and Rs 1.6 million on 40,355 packets of light refreshments. Out of the sum of over Rs 6.6 million spent by the Provincial Councils and Local Government Ministry on the National Day celebrations, 54 per cent or around Rs 3.5 million had been expenditure on refreshments. In the preceding year – 2003 – the National Day expenditure was approximately around Rs 9.3 million.

Who pays for the loss?
The official motor vehicle belonging to the Youth Affairs and Sports Ministry valued at Rs. 4.2 million had disappeared on August 26, 2004 when the minister was out of the island at the Olympic Games.
According to the final inquiry report, it had been established that the loss was due to the negligence of the driver.
However indemnity had not been received up to June 2005. Who pays for these extravagances if not the poor taxpayer.

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