The Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) met for the first time under the patronage of its new Chairman MP Rohitha Abeygunawardana recently.
Chairman MP Rohitha Abeygunawardana, stated although COPE can summon 363 government institutions and agencies, 102 government institutions have not been summoned before the Committee so far.
The Chairman made a full presentation on the objectives and the functioning of the Committee before commencement of the proceedings of the Committee. It is also reported that it is the first time in the COPE history that a new Chairman has made such a presentation.
The Sri Lanka State Plantation Corporation (SLSPC) was summoned before COPE to examine the Auditor General’s reports and current performance for the years 2017 and 2018. Accordingly, the Auditor General pointed out the Sri Lanka State Plantation Corporation has made a profit only in 4 years for the past 27 years of its inception..It was also disclosed that 7 of the 10 tea factories owned by the Corporation, are currently inactive.However, the corporation had not taken any action to resume production or lease out the inactive tea factories.
Officials of Sri Lanka State Plantation Corporation informed the Committee that the primary reason for the corporation’s continuous losses was lack of necessary capital.The officials further commented that the failure to use fertilizers and related herbicides at the right time was also a reason for the losses. However, the Committee pointed out to the officials concerned that the main reason for the losses of the Corporation was not the lack of capital itself. It was also disclosed that the expenditure on employees of the Sri Lanka Plantations Corporation is about 75percent.
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