The Government has paid out about Rs 2 billion by way of supplementary allocations within two months.
While much of the money has been given for the maintenance of displaced people, millions have been spent on legal fees towards the settlement of hedging dispute, purchase of vehicles and foreign travel for government officials.
More than Rs 1101 million was given for recurrent expenditures much of which went towards paying the cost of living and other allowances to employees of state institutions while around Rs. 893.7 million was used for capital expenditures.
The supplementary allocations were made between September 23 and November 4 from the Budgetary Support Services and Contingency Liabilities Project under the Department of the National Budget.
More than Rs 6.6 million had been given to the Department of Public Enterprises to meet the legal expenses of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes on the Hedging Agreement with the Deutsche Bank and the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) in mid October while the Attorney General’s Department was given an additional three million rupees to meet foreign travelling expenses for participation of officers at the Human Rights Commission in Geneva and at the discussions on the Hedging Agreement in London.
The AG’s Department was given an additional two million rupees at the end of October also to meet expense on foreign travel, according to documents tabled in Parliament. The judges of the Supreme Court were allowed Rs 1.2 million to meet the shortfall in provision of foreign travelling while attending study tour in Sweden.
About Rs 13 million had been paid to the Ministry of Justice and Law Reforms to purchase two vehicles for the Bureau of the Commissioner General of Rehabilitation. Parliament was given Rs. 7.5 to purchase a new vehicle for the Deputy Speaker and the Ministry of Ports and Aviation was given Rs. 4 million to buy a new car.
Further Rs 2.7 million was given to the Ministry of Labour Relations and Manpower to provide for vehicle hiring charges and Rs 3.7 million to the Department of Buildings to pay duties and taxes to the Customs Department for obtaining two seized vehicles.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was allocated Rs 28. 4 million to meet the expenditure incurred for the newly established Sri Lanka mission in Libya while Rs 100 million was allocated to the President’s budget for the National Research Council to implement a national research programme.
The Ministry of Water Supply and Drainage was given Rs 24.8 million to settle the cost of monthly discounts given for the customers who use less than 15 units of water. |
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