Corruption, wastage within state sector continue unabated- COPE

Severe corruption and wastage within the State sector have been revealed by the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE), Report submitted to Parliament this week. The Report contains details of COPE investigations into 23 State institutions from March 1-October 26, 2018.

Among the institutions investigated are the Road Development Authority (RDA), Ceylon Petroleum Corporation ( CPC), Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), People’s Bank, National Water Supply & Drainage Board ( NWSDB), Sri Lanka Ports

Authority (SLPA), State Pharmaceuticals Corporation, State Engineering Corporation and the Sri Lanka Tea Board.

Presenting the Report to Parliament on Wednesday ( 23), COPE Chairman Sunil Handunnetti asked the Speaker to consider allowing officials from the Attorney General’s ( AG) Department to attend COPE sittings as observers. He noted this would enable the AG’s Department to initiate Legal action directly against offenders, instead of having to depend on agencies such as the Financial Crimes Investigation Division or the Bribery Commission, to investigate the same matters first. He pointed out that the practice of allowing AG's Department officials to observe proceedings of such Committees, was in effect in countries such as Pakistan.

Some of the highlights listed in the COPE Report include its displeasure over the overall situation of the NWSDB, over matters that have arisen from audit inquiries. These include a debit balance of Rs. 230 million written without proper approval of the Treasury; an accumulated sum of Rs. 5,493 million paid to contractors by the Water Board as advance during 2000-2013, had not been recovered even at the end of the year, and that, the value of the advance paid to the contractors, over 3 years, had been Rs. 683 million, as at December 31, 2017.

It is revealed that, though the RDA had been established to act in relation to the construction of roads, road construction had been assigned to 14 other Ministries. RDA officials told COPE, it did not have control over those constructions.

COPE also found that the Securities & Exchange Commission had paid over Rs. 3.5 million to an officer who had been interdicted with effect from April 19, 2016, as one half of his salary for the period

April 2016 to December 2017, in contravention of the Establishment Code.

Investigations on the Mahaweli Authority reveal that, in providing a licence to excavate soil from Mahaveli zones, 671 acres of Mahaweli Authority located in Walawa, Mayurapura Division, had been given only to 29 persons, to supply 5,000,000 cubes of soil for the Southern Expressway project of RDA.

It was also revealed that, though 122,570 cubes of soil have been supplied, payment has been made only for 3,000 cubes. The excavations had also been done beyond the approved limits, as per the field inquiries.