The Agriculture Ministry has decided to set up a special investigation unit in the Ministry as there is no special investigation unit in the Ministry. Minister Mahinda Amaraweera has advised the officials of the Ministry to take steps to set up such a unit.
There are 13 additional secretaries in the Ministry and some of them were appointed from the agricultural service and some from the administrative service. The Minister has decided to assign unit duties to these officers.
The Minister said that without a suitable unit to investigate certain irregularities as well as delays in implementing certain decisions by the Government is a serious deficiency in performing duties.
Therefore, the Minister has advised that steps should be taken to set up this special investigation unit by deploying an additional secretary and staff in the Ministry. A number of incidents have been reported such as distribution of fertilizer and money by the Asian Development Bank and not giving correct information to be applied to farmers’ accounts.
Although investigations should be started immediately in connection with certain officers who are disrupting the government programme implemented by the Ministry, the absence of such a department in the Ministry is a serious deficiency.
Therefore, Minister Mahinda Amaraweera instructed Ministry Secretary Gunadasa Samarasinghe to set up this Special Investigation Unit very soon.