Sri Lanka’s Auditor General has exposed irregular accounting of debt running into billions of rupees where inconsistent rules were applied and some loans had been completely written off during the period of 2013 to 2015 under the previous regime. The loans obtained in relation to eight loan agreements under contracted liabilities made by the Government [...]

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Financial irregularities of UDA, SLPA mega projects exposed

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Sri Lanka’s Auditor General has exposed irregular accounting of debt running into billions of rupees where inconsistent rules were applied and some loans had been completely written off during the period of 2013 to 2015 under the previous regime.

The loans obtained in relation to eight loan agreements under contracted liabilities made by the Government have not been included in the financial statements of the relevant state institutions, a recent audit inspection revealed.

A balance, unused sum of Rs. 151 billion from these loan agreements for the Hambantota harbour should have been returned by the Treasury to private banks which had provided the loans.

That loan balance, which surfaced only in 2017, has not been included in the Financial Statement of the Treasury. Several financial irregularities and misappropriations in the Ministry of Urban Development during the previous regime were unearthed in the recent audit inspection. These building construction projects had been initiated by the Urban Development Authority (UDA) which was under the Defence Ministry headed by Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Muddled accounting of debt obtained for UDA projects was reported during the period of the previous regime and Mr. Rajapaksa has to bear the responsibility for such irregularities as then Chief Accounting Officer of the UDA, it was stated.

The Auditor General’s report found that the value of the installment and interest to be settled further from the loans of Rs.7.55 billion obtained by the Ministry of Defence from four commercial banks to construct the Secretariat of Personal Identification is Rs.7.39 billion.

This massive balance amount has not been indicated in the Financial Statements of the UDA or the Treasury.

The Department of Immigration and Emigration and the Department of Registration of Persons has been allocated seven and five floors respectively in the 20 storied building complex at Battaramulla. The remaining floors are occupied by the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development.

The objective of the construction of the building was to facilitate to establish offices of Department of Immigration and Emigration, Department of Personal Identification, Register General’s Department and the Consular Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

However, contrary to the above mentioned specific objective, the office facilities have been provided for various government institutions on hiring basis.

(BS)

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